Video: N.Y. Police Officer Stabbed in Back in Violent Street Encounter

A man armed with a box cutter and scissors stabbed a Buffalo police officer before being shot as he reached toward the officer’s gun during a street confrontation.

May 27, 2026

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A Buffalo police officer was stabbed in the back by a man armed with a box cutter and scissors during a Saturday encounter that began after officers were flagged down.
The man, who was cutting himself and expressing suicidal intent, was shot twice by an officer after multiple struggles and an ineffective Taser deployment; both he and the officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigators said body camera footage captures the encounter, including the suspect reaching toward an officer’s weapon, as the internal investigation continues.

By Aaron Besecker and Justin Sondel

Source The Buffalo News, N.Y.

A man accused of stabbing a Buffalo police officer, who was then shot by the officer Saturday afternoon had cut himself and expressed a desire to take his own life during the encounter with police, a Buffalo police official said.

Deputy Police Commissioner Craig Macy described the injuries to both the man and the officer—during what was the third shooting by a Buffalo officer in the last three months—as non-life-threatening.

The latest incident happened at about 4:40 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Broadway and Liddell Street.

The man shot by the officer had a box cutter and a pair of scissors and stabbed the officer in the back, Macy said Saturday night during a news conference near the scene of the altercation.

Macy said he had watched the officers' body-worn camera footage, but no footage has yet been released to the public. (Editor's note: Body camera footage was released Tuesday.)

The investigation remains internal, as the man who was shot twice – once in the hip and once in the torso – was undergoing surgery at Erie County Medical Center, but is expected to live. The man also had self-inflicted lacerations to his neck and chest, Macy said.

"During the interaction, the subject was cutting himself, saying that he was going to kill himself," he said.

The encounter began after officers were flagged down by a woman on Broadway and officers tried to speak to the man. The incident occurred about a half-block between where officers were flagged down and where they interacted with the man.

“They did give verbal commands,” Macy said. “They attempted to have an interaction with this male subject.”

Police have withheld the names of the man and the officers involved.

Macy said police could not say at this point why the woman flagged the officers down or what was said between the woman and the officers.

The officers fought with the man over the weapons at several points in the encounter.

An officer deployed a Taser after his partner was stabbed. Another altercation ensued, Macy said, and the man lost one of his weapons.

A video circulating on social media then shows the man crossing Broadway, when his hand moves toward the officer he stabbed. The officer then shoots the man.

Macy said he could not say whether the man actually grabbed the officer’s weapon, but that his hand moved toward the officer’s gun.

“I wouldn't be comfortable saying that he actually gets a hold of the gun, but it's very close to it, and you can see a distinct reaching motion for it,” Macy said.

The video also shows what appears to be the officer who fired the shots kicking towards the man, who was on the ground.

The man still had one of the weapons, and the officer was attempting to get the weapon out of his hand, Macy said.

Both officers involved were being treated at ECMC at the time of the press conference. The officer who was stabbed was taken to the hospital in another police vehicle.

The man shot by the officer was transported in an ambulance.

Police Commissioner Erika Shields will release more information at a news conference Tuesday.

The last shooting by a Buffalo police officer happened April 15 at a 7-Eleven at Prospect Avenue and Connecticut Street when officers came upon an armed robbery in progress. The robber shot a store clerk in the leg, then fired at officers, who fired back, Erie County District Attorney Mike Keane has previously said. Keane's office cleared Officers Nikko Pascucci and Ezgi Dilek of wrongdoing.

Dejuan L. Williams, 42, also known as Juan Quionos, was shot in the arm in that incident and has been indicted on attempted murder and other charges.

On March 5, police fatally shot a man having a mental health crisis who charged at them while holding two knives inside a multi-unit house on Minnesota Avenue. The death of Charles Butler, 58, known as "D.C.," remains under investigation by the Buffalo Police Homicide Squad, the Internal Affairs Division and by the State Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation.

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