A police officer shot and killed a 66-year-old woman in New York after she allegedly attacked him with a baseball bat.
The officer who fired his weapon, identified as sergeant Hugh Barry, responded to a call about an “emotionally disturbed” woman acting “irrationally” at her apartment in the Castle Hill neighbourhood in the Bronx.
Mr Barry found the woman, Deborah Danner, alone and unclothed in a bedroom, holding a pair of scissors.
He reportedly persuaded Danner to drop the scissors, but he said she then picked up a baseball bat and tried to attack him.
Mr Barry shot her twice in the torso. She was taken to a local medical centre but she died of her injures.
The New York Police Department confirmed to The Independent that the sergeant has been placed on modified duty, which means he does not have his gun and badge, but continues to work in a non-law enforcement capacity.
There is not set timeframe for how long he will be on modified duty.
