Chilling surveillance footage captured the “Wild West” moment an NYPD cop shot a gun-toting maniac who allegedly fired at officers after threatening to shoot up Mount Sinai Hospital.
The tense clip showed the gunman – 20-year-old Elijah Brown – holding his weapon in his hand as he casually walked on Madison Avenue between East 95th and 96th streets late Thursday after telling a bodega worker he planned to riddle the hospital with bullets.
As cops approached Brown, he suddenly whipped around and fired at the officers – prompting at least one to return fire from the street, the footage shows.
Brown then collapsed backward on the sidewalk, where two cops ran to tend to him, soon joined by several others.
The gunman was transported to the hospital in an NYPD vehicle. He was later pronounced dead.
Brown’s reign of terror began around 7 p.m. when he brandished a firearm on an elevator of a residential building on Madison Avenue between East 106th and East 107th streets, NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera told reporters.
Seemingly out of nowhere, he had pulled out the gun and pointed it directly at the person in the elevator with him, Rivera said.
Brown continued holding the man at gunpoint until they reached the first floor of the building, where he then fled to a nearby deli on East 107th Street, police added.
While inside the bodega, the maniac hopped behind the counter and pointed the firearm at a worker before declaring, “Call 911, I’m going to the hospital to shoot it up,” Rivera said.
Brown then stole the deli worker’s phone, fled south on Madison Avenue and walked into Mount Sinai Medical Center at 7:08 p.m., according to officials.
He was briefly inside before leaving and placing his firearm near a tree right outside.
He then re-entered the hospital and encountered an NYPD cop who was working on a paid security detail there, Rivera said.
The gun nut began to act disorderly and told the NYPD member that he had a gun, the chief said.
While the cop attempted to escort him out, Brown grabbed him from behind, and a brief scuffle ensued, police said.
The unhinged assailant, now outside again, then retrieved the firearm he had placed on the ground, and the off-duty officer placed a call to request back-up over the radio, according to cops.
That’s when the deadly Madison Avenue shootout unfolded – soon after multiple people nearby had just gotten off an MTA bus.
“This situation could have turned out differently. An individual walked into multiple locations with a gun, menaced people with that gun, then shot at our officers in the middle of a busy sidewalk with civilians in close proximity,” Rivera said Thursday night.
“Every day, our officers put on their uniforms, and they encounter dangerous situations across the city. But it’s another kind of danger when someone goes into a deli and the hospital with a gun and opens fire directly at the NYPD,” he said.
Brown has no prior arrests, police said Friday.
