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New York • Police shot and killed a woman who confronted them with scissors and a baseball bat, police said.
It happened inside an apartment in the Bronx on Tuesday evening.
Officers responding to a 911 call about an emotionally disturbed person encountered the 66-year-old woman holding scissors in a bedroom, police said.
A sergeant persuaded the woman to drop the scissors. Police said after she put down the scissors she grabbed a baseball bat and tried to strike the sergeant, who fired two shots from his revolver and hit her in the torso.
The woman was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Maria Nevins, a 63-year-old bystander who was walking by the building, saw the woman being wheeled out on a stretcher.
"They were giving her CPR trying to bring her back but she was purple already," Nevins told the Daily News.
The New York Police Department said it will conduct a full investigation into the incident.
"The sergeant was armed with a Taser. It was not deployed, and the reason it was not deployed will be part of the investigation and review," said Assistant Chief Larry Nikunen.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. issued a statement condemning the police shooting of a mentally disturbed woman.
"This elderly woman was known to the police department, yet the officer involved in this shooting failed to use discretion to either talk her down from her episode or, barring that, to use his stun gun," Diaz said.