Police shot and killed a man inside a Brooklyn apartment on Friday evening whom they said they were seeking in connection with three recent homicides. The incident marks the 12th fatal NYPD shooting this year, according to data tracked by Gothamist.
Police identified the man as 38-year-old Vilmond Jean Baptiste and said officers fatally shot him just before 5:30 p.m. at 485 East 21st St. in Flatbush. Members of the NYPD’s fugitive enforcement unit arrived at the apartment with an open-bench warrant for Baptiste, according to officials. When police entered the apartment, they found Baptiste in a bathtub fully dressed in a hoodie, the NYPD said.
Officers instructed Baptiste to get out of the bathtub when they saw he was holding a knife, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference on Friday night. They told him to drop the knife but he did not comply, according to Maddrey.
A sergeant at the scene tried to deploy his Taser to immobilize Baptise, but the effort did not work, Maddrey said. He said Baptiste at that point “jumped out of the tub and advanced on the officers.”
At least three police officers fired their guns, but it was unclear how many times they fired, according to the police chief.
Officials said police arrested Baptiste after shooting him, following NYPD protocol. They said he was later transported to a hospital and succumbed to his injuries.
Baptiste was arrested in 2015 for reckless endangerment and had an active bench warrant from 2022, according to the NYPD. Police also identified him as a person of interest in two incidents over the summer that resulted in three homicides. In the first incident, a 54-year-old woman and 24-year-old man were stabbed to death in July. In the second incident, in August, a 66-year-old woman was stabbed to death.
NYPD officials said Baptiste had had a romantic relationship with at least one of the female victims.
“He begins to date older women, and then they allow him to reside in their house to use narcotics,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the press conference, which was held at the 70th Precinct stationhouse.
Officials released a photo of the knife they said officers seized during their confrontation with Baptiste. They said the investigation into the incident is continuing.
The news comes one day after Mayor Eric Adams named former FBI official Tom Donlon as the NYPD’s interim commissioner, following the resignation of Commissioner Edward Caban, whose phone was seized by federal authorities last week as part of an investigation into his twin brother’s nightlife consulting business. Caban, a more than 30-year veteran of the department, had served in the role for a little more than a year and became the second NYPD commissioner to resign under Adams.
This story has been updated with additional information.