Police on Long Island, New York, have identified a man who stabbed two officers before being killed by police as a 56-year-old ex-con who once served two years in prison for assaulting another law enforcement officer.
Suffolk County Police said Thursday night that the man who attacked officers in Medford on Wednesday was Enrique Lopez.
Earlier Thursday, Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison released other details of the deadly encounter during a news conference outside Stony Brook University Hospital, where officers continued to be treated.
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Both officers are recovering from non-life-threatening injuries. One of them was on a ventilator, but in stable condition, Harrison said. Their names have not been released.
“By the grace of God, these officers will be going home to their loved ones,” Harrison said.
Enrique Lopez, 56, was identified as the man shot to death by Long Island, New York police after stabbing two officers. Lopez was previously in prison for assaulting an officer.
(FoxNews)
Officers responded to a 911 call about a man threatening residents of a condominium complex with a fire extinguisher, police said. As they approached Lopez, he pulled out a large knife, Harrison said.
The officers ordered Lopez to drop the knife, but he lunged at them and stabbed them, Harrison said. One officer was stabbed in the clavicle, neck and groin area, and the other was stabbed through his bulletproof vest in the chest, the commissioner said. A third officer was treated at a hospital for tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, and released, authorities said.
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One of the officers fired four shots at Lopez, hitting him in the upper chest, Harrison said.
County police told The Associated Press Thursday that one of the officers who was stabbed shot Lopez, but later said they were wrong and could not confirm which officer opened fire. The state attorney general’s office is reviewing the shooting under normal procedures.
The officers who were stabbed are in their 20s and less than five years on the force.
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Lopez had served two years in prison for assaulting a police officer in 2011, police said.
