A suicidal Bronx woman is suing the NYPD for bringing guns to a knife fight.
Joann Clarke, whom responding cops found stabbing herself with knives, claims the officers were negligent for shooting her in the leg after she lunged at them.
Clarke’s boyfriend called cops to his Pelham Bay apartment last year, telling a 911 dispatcher Clarke was emotionally disturbed and “might hurt herself.”
Officers found Clarke with steak and carving knives, cutting into her own body before eventually running at one of them with a knife in hand, according to a published report.
That’s when one of the officers fired his weapon, hitting the 43-year-old in the leg in the March 2012 incident.
Clarke claims the officers were negligent, “unfit, incompetent and/or improperly or insufficiently trained,” according to a Bronx Supreme Court suit filed this month.
The use of force was “excessive, unjustified [and] unreasonable,” Clarke alleges in court papers.
Clarke is seeking unspecified damages. The city is reviewing the lawsuit, a Law Department spokeswoman said.
Republished with permission of The New York Post.
