Police officers shot a man dead in a Bronx apartment late on Sunday after he refused to stop beating his mother, officials said on Monday.
The officers fired at the man, Satnam Singh, 27, five times, striking him three times in the torso, after he ignored their orders, according to the police. Medical workers pronounced him dead at the scene.
The woman, Kuan Balbir, 54, had multiple skull fractures and bleeding of the brain, among many injuries, according to the police. Balbir, who lives in the apartment, was in a stable condition on Monday night at the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center.
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A relative told investigators that Singh had a history of emotional problems, the police said. Several people who live near Balbir said in interviews that her son appeared to have emotional trouble.
Four officers, including a sergeant, arrived at an apartment on the second floor of 3055 Third Ave., near 156th Street in the Melrose section, around 11 p.m. on Sunday after the authorities received a call from another of Balbir’s sons, who said that he had not heard from his mother.
The officers heard noises from inside the apartment but nobody answered. The building’s superintendent opened the door, but it was chained shut from the inside. Through the door’s opening, the officers saw Singh standing over his mother, who was covered in blood and sitting on a couch, the police said, adding that he was repeatedly hitting her with a frying pan.
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The officers broke the door down, entered the apartment and told Singh repeatedly to drop the pan, the police said.
Singh did not do so, and as he raised the pan to strike his mother again, one of the officers fired two shots at him, the police said. He staggered away from his mother but then moved back toward her and raised the pan again to strike her. The sergeant fired once, and the officer who fired the first shots fired two more times.
The police did not release the names of the officers involved. — © 2010 The New York Times News Service