Police shot and critically wounded a man who was threatening his mother with a knife in their Bronx apartment late Thursday, according to NYPD officials.
Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera told reporters at the scene that officers went to a building on Mulford Avenue and Libby Place in Pelham Bay after receiving a 911 call around 11:20 p.m. about a man with a knife who was attempting to harm himself.
Rivera said the call was placed by a security guard who was working for the building and heard screaming coming from the family’s apartment.
When police arrived at the door, they were let in by a family member and saw a 34-year-old man holding his 61-year-old mother at knifepoint at the back of the apartment, according to Rivera.
“He had his left arm around his mother’s neck and a large kitchen knife in his right hand,” he said. “Our officers engaged the male in dialogue in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.”
Police spent two and a half minutes trying to get the man to drop the knife and free his mother, but he made “numerous threats” to kill her and moved the knife toward her neck, said Rivera.
At that point, one of the officers fired a round, striking the man in the head and allowing his mother to escape his grasp, according to the chief of patrol. The man was taken to Jacobi Hospital in critical condition and his mother was not injured, Rivera said.
Rivera said the officers involved were taken to a local hospital for evaluation and the entire incident was captured on their body-worn cameras.
Dominick Ribustello, a Connecticut resident, told Gothamist by phone Friday that the man police shot is his son, Daniel Ribustello.
“All I know is that my son is in really bad shape, but he’s stable,” said Dominick, adding that he visited his son at Jacobi Hospital after learning what had happened. “My son did have troubles, but no inkling that he would ever do anything like this.”
The older Ribustello said he was not sure why Daniel allegedly threatened the woman, who he said is his ex-wife. He said doctors had put Daniel in an induced coma.
NYPD officials confirmed Daniel Ribustello was involved in the incident, but said they did not yet know whether police had been called to the home in the past.
Next-door neighbor Patricia Dilapi said that after police shot the man, his mother came to her apartment in distress. Dilapi said she had never noticed any commotion with the family since they moved into the building a few years ago.
The department’s force investigation division is reviewing the incident, according to officials.
It was the second time an NYPD officer shot someone during a confrontation this week, according to police.
Police said they shot and killed Pennsylvania resident Jumaane Wright, 28, on Tuesday night in Brooklyn after catching him driving a stolen Porsche on the Belt Parkway. Officials said Wright almost crashed into officers who were attempting to block him from driving farther, and that is when an officer fired at him, according to police.
So far this year, NYPD officers have fatally shot four people, including Wright, according to police data compiled by Gothamist.
This story has been updated with additional information.
