On Thursday, November 27, Port Authority police were alerted to a man acting erratically on a PATH 14th Street Station platform in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Thanksgiving. The man was observed on Port Authority surveillance cameras possessing what appeared to be a butcher-type knife.
PAPD patrol and ESU units were dispatched, while the PATH Control Center instructed trains to bypass the station. Police Officers Bora Kagitcioglu and Nicholas DeSalvo arrived on scene and were confronted with an unhinged 34-year-old man armed with a large knife and acting as if he was stabbing people.
The officers positioned themselves to protect the people in the station as the man continued acting out violent, knife-wielding motions.
As the officers faced off with the man, they were able, using their experience and training, to engage him in a dialogue that, as tense moments passed, began to de-escalate the volatile situation. The standoff eventually ended as the man dropped the knife and was taken into custody.
The officers successfully ended what could have resulted in a tragic incident without injuries to the public, the man or themselves — a textbook example of control and de-escalation of a dangerous engagement by Police Officers Kagitcioglu and DeSalvo.