NYPD brass said the alleged fare-beater had charged at the officers with a knife and made verbal threats against their lives; he was last said to be in critical condition, along with one of the bystanders

Yeah, that may have been how it started.

Body-worn camera footage, which Maddrey said he reviewed before the press conference, allegedly showed the man make a verbal threat to the officers. He told the cops, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me,” the chief said.

Definitely sounds like the police at fault, and the guy wasn’t a walking time bomb or anything.

I get that the situation with the police in the US is cooked, but saying this was over a $2 fare isn’t really being honest about the situation.

I mean, for discharging your firearm in an enclosed space with tons of people around? Yeah, I definitely would consider the police at fault. Should the guy with the knife have been persued once it was revealed he was armed? Sure, I can accept that. But what I do not accept is that the police seem to, despite the absurd modern toolkit at their disposal, only have two tools they actually use: their taser and their gun.

Why is it that seemingly anywhere else a knife-wielding assailant can be subdued without blood being drawn, but here it results in several people suffering life threatening injuries and one dead?

seemingly anywhere else a knife-wielding assailant can be subdued without blood being drawn,

Where has this actually happened though? I very much doubt it’s standard practice for any police force.