Girls hospitalized after man sets upon group with meat cleaver

A knife-wielding suspect was shot and four young girls injured following a police-involved shooting in New York.

The shooting happened after the unidentified man attacked 'a number of children'  ranging in age from 8 to 16 with a meat cleaver at a home in Bensonhurst, NYPD commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said.

It occurred at around 10:30am Sunday at a home on 1671 84th Street, where Tisch told reporters at the scene that officers had received a domestic violence call from - reported an 11-year-old girl who lived at the address but was not injured.

Within minutes, officers were at the domicile's door after being let into the building by 'an uninjured child', Tisch said.

After being led into a small vestibule that contained two more closed doors, officers 'heard screams coming from behind' the other side, the commissioner recalled.

The first-responders, at that point, '[forced] their way into the apartment, kicking down the door,' the top cop said.

Upon entering, the officers found themselves face-to-face with a suspect 'holding a large meat cleaver covered in blood,' she said. Blood could also be seen on both the floors and the walls, Tisch added - before detailing the altercation that ensued.

'The officers ordered the suspect to drop the weapon several times,' she said. 'He refused and advanced toward them. Two officers discharged their firearms, firing seven total rounds between them.'

The bullets, she said, ended up 'striking the suspect, ending the threat.' She added how the entire ordeal was captured on the officer's body-cameras, though the footage, as of 3pm ET, has yet to be released. 

Footage from the chaotic scene, meanwhile, showed a female victim covered head-to-toe in blood, with Tisch saying her department found 'four female victims aged 16, 13, 11, and 8 inside the blood spattered apartment.

'All had serious slash and stab wounds,' Tisch said in an in-person statement delivered at the scene.

'Responding officers and EMS provided emergency medical care on-scene before the victims were removed to Maimonides [Medical Center].

'At this time, all four children are expected to survive,' she added, 'But this could have ended very differently.

Other clips show officers crowding the scene where officers hours earlier discharged their weapon - a decision law enforcement sources told the Post came after the still-unnamed suspect ignored the officers' orders to drop the knife.

Afterwards,  the suspect lunged at the first responders, they said - recalling how he was then shot multiple times.

The suspect has been left with life-threatening injuries as a result, they said - as neighbors spoke to the paper and other local publications about what they witnessed Sunday morning.

'They brought out a guy on a stretcher, all bloody without a shirt,' he said. 'I don’t know who it was, but they shot him twice. 

'They took him out and put him in the ambulance,' eyewitness Humberto Hureta said of the suspect. 'Probably 40 years old.'

As it stands, cops have yet to announce any casualties, with both the victims and shooter having been hospitalized.   

Insiders and witnesses both recalled EMS removing one adult and two children from the scene, with one of the young ones said to be in critical condition.

amNewYork initially reported the unnamed suspect succumbed to his wounds after being shot, before amending their report to state he was only 'seriously injured.'

'I saw a guy come out on a stretcher,' eyewitness Hureta told the station as well, as the Post produced images of the suspect being stretchered away.

'He wasn’t moving, his shirt was all bloody and he was handcuffed to the stretcher. His eyes were rolling back in his head,' Hureta further recalled. 'I never saw anything like it.'

'I was watching through the window and the girl covered in blood came out,' another  witness who asked to be identified only as Maria told the paper. 'And then there was another girl. The two girls were just covered in blood. 

'I was shaking. I’m still shaking now,' she went on to add, after early reports suggested there had been a casualty.  

'I don’t usually see them,' she added of the victims, which early reports suggested numbered at a least half-a-dozen as opposed to four. 'They just moved here. I lived here seven years and there are a lot of new people moving here.'

Sources who spoke with amNewYork said they believed the suspect was the uncle of the victims, though details surrounding that prospective link remain hazy.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the NYPD for comment. As of 3pm, their investigation remained ongoing. 

The suspect is said to be in 'critical condition.' 

This is a developing story; please check back for updates.