Cops fatally shoot machete-wielding man who slashed 3 people at Grand Central Station: police 22%
By Rocco Parascandola54% Thomas Tracy41% Julian Roberts-Grmela0% Theodore Parisienne0%
4/11/2026, 3:30:40 PM
Topics: Nyc Crime, Subway Violence
BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Framing Effect, and Halo Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 26.1% saturation with 416 hits. Analysis detected 1,053 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,595 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.7% and a BS Rank of 22% (16,123 of 20,453 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.80% of the article peer group.
A machete-wielding man screaming he was “Lucifer” was shot dead by cops after he savagely slashed three elderly subway commuters in a terrifying, unprovoked attack in Grand Central Station in Midtown Saturday, police said.
Holding his weapon firmly in his hand, Anthony Griffin, 44, refused to drop his massive blade after two uniformed NYPD Transit detectives confronted him on the uptown 4/5/6 platform inside Grand Central Station on E. 42nd St. near Park Ave. around 9:40 a.m., Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The detectives ordered him 20 times to drop his weapon, but he refused, Tisch said, briefing the press after the shooting.
When that didn’t work, the detectives tried to defuse the situation by offering to help him if he dropped the menacing blade.
In the end, Griffin “advanced to the officers with his knife extended,” Tisch said.
“Officers fired, striking the perpetrator twice and immediately began using life-saving measures.”
Video seen by the Daily News shows cops performing CPR on Griffin, who was wearing shorts and gold sneakers at the foot of the stairs.
Griffin died of his wounds at Bellevue Hospital.
The scene on the subway platform after cops shot and killed a man who slashed three elderly commuters on the uptown 4/5/6 subway platform inside Grand Central Terminal on E. 42nd St. near Park Ave. in Manhattan on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
(Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
Tricia Sheppard was seated on a Brooklyn-bound No. 5 train stopped at the platform when her fellow straphangers began wondering why the subway car doors hadn’t opened.
“One of us was getting antsy and pressed the service button and told the conductor to open the door,” Sheppard, 36, said.
“(The conductor) said they had a suspect in custody.
Then we heard the shots and saw people running on the platform.”
Dozens of commuters fled down the platform, running away from the shots.
Even people on Sheppard’s train were moving through the cars, trying to get to the train’s front, away from the gunfire.
“It was scary, it was very scary,” Sheppard said.
“Everyone was panicked.
Even I had a panic attack.”
Police said Griffin entered the transit system at the Vernon Blvd. station in Queens around 9:30 a.m. and took the No. 7 train to Grand Central Station.
Once he got off the train, he immediately pulled out his machete and lunged at an 84-year-old man on the platform, leaving him with significant slash wounds to his head and face.
Griffin then moved upstairs to the Nos. 4/5/6 platform, where he attacked a 65-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman.
The man suffered slash wounds to the face and an “open skull fracture” and the woman was hacked in the shoulder, cops said.
Griffin apparently didn’t know his three victims, who were targeted at random, NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta said Saturday.
“These appear to be random acts,” Gulotta said.
The two detectives, who were working an overtime detail, were on the mezzanine level when a witness alerted them about what was happening.
As the Transit officers descended down to the 4/5/6 platform, one of Griffin’s victims came staggering up the stairs, seeking medial attention, Tisch said.
As soon as the two cops got down the stairs, they found Griffin, police said.
A machete is pictured (at far right) on the subway platform after cops shot and killed a man who slashed three elderly commuters on the uptown 4/5/6 subway platform inside Grand Central Terminal on E. 42nd St. near Park Ave. in Manhattan on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
(Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The harrowing confrontation was caught on the cops’ body-worn cameras, including when Griffin kept yelling, “I’m Lucifer!”
to police when they told him to drop his weapon.
“Our officers were confronted with an armed individual who had already injured multiple people and was continuing to pose a threat,” Tisch said.
“They gave clear commands.
They attempted to de-escalate.
And when that threat did not stop, they took decisive action to stop it and to protect New Yorkers on one of the busiest train platforms in the city.
“Incidents like this show the reality of this work,” Tisch said.
Griffin’s machete was recovered at the scene.
When the doors on her subway car were finally opened, Sheppard stepped out onto the platform and saw the bloody aftermath of the slashings and shooting.
“I saw the lady that was cut,” she said.
“She was on a gurney.
Her face was wrapped up and it was bloody.
“But I think she was OK,” Sheppard added.
“Her eyes were open and she was talking to EMS, but her face was very bloody.”
Sheppard also saw EMS working on Griffin and packaging him up for transport.
“The police were getting everyone to safety, moving us away from the scene and blocking off the area,” she said.
“They did a great job making sure it was contained.”
Mayor Mamdani said on Saturday that he was “grateful to the NYPD for their quick response and for preventing additional violence.”
“Reports indicate a man slashed three people on the platform with a machete,” Mamdani posted on X after being briefed about the situation.
“Officers shot the man when he did not drop the machete.
He has since been pronounced dead.
The three victims were taken to the hospital and are thankfully in stable condition.”
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch holds a news conference near the scene of a stabbing and shooting at the Grand Central subway station in New York on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
(AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
An internal investigation by the NYPD Force Investigation Division was underway, Mamdani said.
“The NYPD is conducting an internal investigation and will release body-worn camera footage, as it does in all incidents involving the discharge of an officer’s firearm,” he said.
Police said that Griffin, who has a tattoo of the word “Outlaw” on his arm, has been arrested 13 times.
He has no history of mental illness with the department.
“I’ve been briefed on the horrific incident at Grand Central this morning,” Gov.
Hochul said on X.
“Innocent people were attacked in a senseless act of violence.
I’m grateful to our brave officers who acted quickly to stop the suspect.
We’re working closely with the NYPD as the investigation unfolds.”
An ambulance is pictured outside Grand Central Terminal after cops shot and killed a man who slashed three elderly commuters on the uptown 4/5/6 subway platform inside Grand Central Terminal on E. 42nd St. near Park Ave. in Manhattan on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
(Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The city’s Office of Emergency Management put out a notice on X, warning residents and visitors to “avoid the area” of E. 42nd St. and Depew Place.”
“Police Activity: Expect traffic delays, road closures, mass transit disruptions & emergency personnel,” the alert read.
All Nos. 4/5/6/7 trains were rerouted around Grand Central station for several hours as the investigation into the shooting continued.
“This is a terrible incident, something that should never happen,” Bill Amarosa, executive vice president of subways at New York City Transit said as he visited Grand Central Saturday.
“We really appreciate the fast response of the NYPD and helping out and getting on scene as quickly as they did.”
Amarosa said Grand Central “is one of the busiest stations in the subway system.”
“We are concerned about making sure our customers get where they need to go on this weekend, and we’ve been bypassing the 4, 5 and 6 platform and the 7 line platform for a few hours now,” he said.
“We’re working closely with NYPD to make sure that we can reopen those platforms as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so.”
Subway lines were reopened by Saturday evening, officials said.
As of April 5, assaults in the city’s subway system were down by 6%, from 171 this time last year to 160.
Tisch said that just last month, the NYPD added an additional 175 officers to the transit system, which didn’t include overtime patrols.
“Random acts of violence scare everyone.
Anyone can be a victim of a random act of violence,” Tisch said.
“And that is why it is so important for New Yorkers to understand that the NYPD has recently upped our presence in the transit system including right here in Grand Central Station.”
Hours after the bloodshed, tour guide Marco Pavone, 47, brought a group of Italian tourists to Grand Central to look at the iconic subway station.
“They were shocked,” Pavone said about his tour members when they were told about the shooting that had just happened.
But the group, he said, had seen “a lot of movies” about mayhem in Manhattan, but weren’t prepared for the real thing.
“It’s very serious.
So maybe they didn’t expect that,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it’s part of the city”
Westchester resident Stacie Hoffmeister, who was hoping to take the No. 6 train from Grand Central to an NYU event, was left in “utter shock” over the deadly confrontation.
“It’s been quite a while since I’ve heard of an incident like this happening,” Hoffmeister, 51, said.
“I used the subway quite a bit.
There was a time when I did not use the subway.
I drove in because I didn’t feel safe, and I was honestly just feeling safe again.
“(This violence) brings this all into question,” she said.
“It’s not OK.
This is very unnerving.”
With Emma Seiwell
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