NYC security guard shot by police while trying to commit suicide by cop
Bronx NY April 3 2020
A man who recently tested positive for coronavirus — and armed with a knife and gun — was shot and wounded by police while attempting “suicide by cop” in the Bronx early Wednesday, authorities said.
“He told police that he had tested positive for the virus earlier yesterday,” an NYPD spokesman said of the suspect, identified by police sources as Ricardo Cardona. “He called 911 on himself. It appears he was hoping cops would shoot him — that was the point of his confrontation.”
Besides Cardona, two other people called 911 just before 4 a.m. reporting a man with a knife outside a shuttered Dunkin Donuts at Westchester and Zarega Aves. in Westchester Square.
The responding officers found Cardona, 55, armed with a fearsome combat knife and a long-barreled black powder gun, police said.
“He was shot right there,” said a 34-year-old construction worker, who witnessed the aftermath from his window. Cardona lay bleeding half on the sidewalk, the witness said.
Cardona’s niece, Gabriella Marquez, confirmed her uncle tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday. The security guard already suffered from diabetes and feared the worst, she said.
Marquez, 25, didn’t know Cardona was shot by police until she and her sister showed up at his apartment and saw police outside his door.
“We haven’t heard from him, and with his diagnosis we were concerned,” Marquez said. “We were worried that something happened.”
Cardona was suffering from COVID-19 symptoms for several days when he went to Montefiore’s Westchester Square Campus but he was sent home, relatives said. When his symptoms didn’t go away, he went back to the hospital Tuesday and was diagnosed with the virus.
“He was upset,” Marquez said. “He was high-risk. He has issues. He has diabetes.”
An NYPD spokesman said that when the officers from the 45th Precinct arrived at the scene Cardona “advanced on them with a gun.”
“He was told multiple times, ‘Drop the knife! Drop the gun! and ‘Don’t move!’ and he ignored these and was shot,” the spokesman said.
A second witness, who also wished not to be named, confirmed that cops had screamed at Cardona to drop his gun before firing three shots. Then the cops screamed “Drop the gun!” again before a barrage of shots were heard.
The gun in Cardona’s hand “looked real,” the construction worker said.
Cardona was blasted in the hip and back. Cops fired a total of nine shots, authorities said.
EMTs rushed him to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was in stable condition Wednesday afternoon.
Cops recovered his knife and gun and released photos of them.
The officers were taken to Westchester Square Campus for observation and were then released.
Charges against Cardona were pending. A police official said the suspect has a prior arrest, for weapons possession, in 1982.
nydailynews.com
