NEW YORK — Police shot and killed a man early Friday after he climbed the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and raised his arm and extended a knife toward officers, officials said at a news conference.

The fatal shooting happened just days after police shot and killed a woman in Times Square after she attacked two people with knives, killing one.

On Friday, officers responded to a 911 call made at 3:28 a.m. that reported a man walking on the beams of the Brooklyn Bridge. The police officers climbed onto the bridge, using harnesses to clip onto the cables for safety, Gerard Dowling, the commanding officer of the Police Department’s emergency services unit, said at the news conference.

According to Dowling, the man told the police officers that he had a bomb and wanted to die. After a standoff lasting about an hour, the man began quickly descending a bridge cable toward the officers, who were clipped on the same cable below him. The officers began moving backward but were not able to move as quickly as the man, Dowling said.

The man was within 3 feet of the closest officer when he raised his arm and extended a knife toward the officer, Dowling said. An officer fired and struck the man, who was then brought down from the cables and given first aid. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police told members of the public to “avoid the vicinity of the Brooklyn-bound Brooklyn Bridge” right before the 6 a.m. rush hour, according to a post on social media. By 8:30 a.m., the bridge was open to traffic.

In 2024, the latest year for which data was immediately available, 14 people were killed in police shootings, up from seven people in 2023 and 13 people in 2022.

The shooting Friday followed two other high-profile incidents this summer where people climbed the Brooklyn Bridge.

In July, police officers responded to a woman they said had climbed the bridge in emotional distress and rescued her from a beam. In August, a man climbed all the way to the top of the bridge’s north tower and jumped off into the water after stripping naked. He was later arrested.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Claire Fahy/Dakota Santiago
c. 2026 The New York Times Company