The New York City Police Department released body-worn camera footage Friday that shows the final moments of the April 11 confrontation in which two detectives shot and killed a machete-wielding man who had just attacked three commuters at the busy 42nd Street-Grand Central subway station.
The video, posted on the department’s YouTube page, captures detectives Ryan Giuffre and Anthony Manetta encountering 44-year-old Anthony Griffin on a stairwell around 9:40 a.m. Griffin had already randomly slashed three people in the station, according to the police, and is seen holding a large knife high near his head as the uniformed officers draw their weapons and repeatedly command him to drop it.
“Nobody wants to hurt you,” Giuffre says in the footage. “We can talk about it. Get down. Get down. Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. Please. Please. Please. Get down!”
Griffin continues shouting and moving erratically toward the officers with the blade raised. He can be heard saying, “I don’t want to be here. Shoot me,” and at another point, “I am Lucifer.” Giuffre then fires two shots, and Griffin collapses. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at the time of the incident that the officers ordered Griffin to drop the weapon at least 20 times. “Our officers were confronted with an armed individual who had already injured multiple people and was continuing to pose a threat,” she said. “They gave clear commands. They attempted to de-escalate. And when that threat did not stop, they took decisive action to stop it and to protect New Yorkers on one of the busiest train platforms in the city.”
The three stabbing victims — an 84-year-old man, a 65-year-old man, and a 70-year-old woman — sustained “significant lacerations to the head and face” and a skull fracture, Tisch said, though the injuries were not considered life-threatening.
The release of the footage follows standard NYPD policy of making body camera evidence public in cases involving police shootings.