NEW YORK (AP) — Eight New York City police officers were injured when a Queens residence exploded in a dramatic blast that hurled the responding officers across a yard during the early morning hours of Thursday.
The officers had been called to the scene regarding reports of an armed individual with a knife and the odor of gas when the devastating explosion occurred. All eight officers sustained minor injuries, including burns and at least one head wound, according to police officials. Medical personnel treated the injured officers, and authorities confirmed that everyone who had been inside the residence was located, though several required hospital treatment.
Dramatic body camera footage captured the terrifying moment just before 3 a.m. when officers approached the small Queens home. As one officer began opening the front door, a tremendous explosion erupted, shattering windows and launching the officers backward across the yard into a fence. The video shows the officers struggling to get back on their feet amid the debris while smoke poured from the damaged structure, with officers checking on each other’s welfare.
“You guys good?” one of the officers can be heard saying.
The footage then jumps forward about a minute, showing an officer assisting two young children from the home while several other residents stumbled out of the building.
“I want to be clear: We got very lucky today, alright,” Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh of the New York Police Department said at a news briefing hours later. “This could have turned out really differently.”
“Thankfully, today, luck was on their side,” he said of the officers.
According to McIntosh, the individual who triggered the initial emergency call had come to the residence while intoxicated, carrying a knife and two garbage bags containing canisters filled with an “unknown substance.” The man forced entry by pushing through an air conditioning unit to access a basement apartment where his wife, daughter and two grandchildren were living.
The family members managed to escape the building before officers arrived on scene. The suspect remains missing, McIntosh reported.
The residence completely collapsed following the explosion, and surrounding homes also sustained damage, authorities confirmed.
