Police shoot and kill man with knife in Brooklyn: officials

FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (PIX11) – Police shot and killed a man after he charged at them with a knife inside an apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on Friday, officials said.

The shooting happened in an apartment building at 485 East 21st St. around 5:20 p.m., according to the NYPD.

Members of the NYPD’s warrant squad went into the apartment to serve a warrant, police said. They found the man they were looking for hiding in a bathtub in the apartment, according to police.

The officers ordered the man to get out of the tub and show his hands, but they then realized he was armed with a knife, according to NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey.

“They gave numerous commands for him to drop the knife. A sergeant on the scene tried to deploy a Taser, but the Taser did not work. At that point, the male jumped out of the tub and advanced on the officers. At least three officers fired their weapons,” Maddrey said.

Police identified the man as 38-year-old Vilmond Jean-Baptiste. He was taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead, police said.

Jean-Baptiste was a “strong” person of interest in two separate homicide cases in Brooklyn that resulted in the deaths of three people, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

Kenny said one of the homicide cases involved the stabbing deaths of a 54-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man who were found dead inside an apartment at 640 Ditmas Ave. in Kensington in July.

The other homicide case involved the stabbing death of a 66-year-old woman who was found dead in a home on East 56th Street in Flatlands in August, according to Kenny.

“His MO seems to be he begins to date older women and then they allow him to reside in their house to use narcotics,” Kenny said.

Jean-Baptiste had one prior arrest for reckless endangerment in 2015, police said.

Finn Hoogensen is a digital journalist who has covered local news for more than five years. He has been with PIX11 News since 2022. See more of his work here .

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