The NYPD released body camera footage of a frightening knife attack on officers in December outside a burning home after the suspect fatally stabbed four relatives, including an 11-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.
The incident happened shortly after 5 a.m. Dec. 3 when NYPD officers responded to a burning home in Queens after a call from a girl saying her cousin was killing relatives, the New York Daily News reported at the time. When two officers reached the scene, they encountered a man with luggage walking out of the home.
In the footage released by the department, officers are seen talking with the man—identified as Courtney Gordon—and asking him if he knew what had happened at the home. Without warning, Gordon pulls out a kitchen steak knife and attacks both officers.
One officer was stabbed in the neck and chest, and the other officer was stabbed in the head. Despite being stabbed, one of the wounded officers fired his weapon at Gordon and fatally shot him.
The two wounded officers were rushed to the hospital, where they were treated.
“A couple of millimeters one way or the other, it could have been a problem,” a police source told the Daily News about the injuries of one of the officers.
An investigation of the scene found five people stabbed, four fatally. An 11-year-old, a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman and a man in his 30s were killed in the attack.
A 61-year-old woman also was stabbed multiple times and taken to the hospital in critical condition. Gordon was accused of setting fire to a living room couch as he left, forcing firefighters to put out the flames before officers could reach the scene.
