The knife-wielding nutjob who paralyzed Times Square before he was shot dead by cops had a lengthy rap sheet including a Midtown bust for threatening cops with a screwdriver, sources said.
A pair of veteran patrol cops squeezed off 12 shots at the pot-fueled madman as he lunged within two to three feet of them brandishing an 11-inch IKEA kitchen carving knife, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said today.
Browne said the officers who fired had just pulled their patrol car onto the sidewalk on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 37th and 38th streets, boxing the bandana-wearing suspect in.
One officer, a 40-year-old with 18 years on the job, fired three times while his partner, 30 and a seven-year-veteran, fired nine times at point blank range as onlookers gaped and ran for cover.
Darius Kennedy was struck at least seven times about 3 p.m. Saturday, Browne said, including three times in the chest, twice in the left arm, once in the groin and once in the left calf. The Medical Examiner will make a final determination, as some of the wounds may have been exit wounds, Browne said.
Neither of the cops, assigned to the Midtown South precinct, had ever fired their weapons on duty, he said.
None of the more than 20 cops who pursued Kennedy down Seventh Avenue from where he was spotted smoking a joint were armed with tasers, he said.
And Kennedy shook off a blast of pepper spray to the face that may have been diluted in Saturday afternoon’s stiff breezes, Browne said.
Only patrol sergeants and Emergency Service Unit cops are routinely armed with tasers, he added, and none arrived on the scene during the roughly four minutes it took for the drama to unfold in the Crossroads of the World.
Kennedy, who had no known address but was believed flopping somewhere in Washington Heights, had 11 priors, including busts for pot possession and robbery.
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TXT 24
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