Machete-Wielding Man Fatally Shot by NYPD After Stabbing Three at Grand Central

A 44-year-old Queens man who boarded a 7 train with a machete attacked three strangers at Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal on Saturday morning before being fatally shot by police after refusing more than 20 orders to drop his weapon.

Anthony Griffin boarded the 7 train at Vernon Boulevard in Queens at approximately 9:30 a.m., surveillance cameras showed. His first victim was an 84-year-old man, whom Griffin slashed on the 7 train platform at 42nd Street-Grand Central, leaving him with significant lacerations to his head and face. Griffin then moved upstairs to the 4/5/6 platform, where he attacked a 65-year-old man, who suffered head injuries that included an open skull fracture, and a 70-year-old woman, who sustained a laceration to her shoulder. Authorities said the three victims did not know the suspect or one another, and the attack appeared entirely random.

At approximately 9:40 a.m., a civilian flagged down two NYPD detectives working an overtime transit detail at the station. As they moved toward the 4/5/6 platform, the detectives found one of the victims coming up the stairs, then encountered Griffin, who was behaving erratically and repeatedly yelling that he was "Lucifer," still armed with the machete. Officers issued at least 20 commands to drop the weapon. When Griffin walked toward them instead, one detective shot him twice. Officers performed CPR at the scene before Griffin was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two detectives were also hospitalized for tinnitus caused by the gunfire; both are in stable condition. All three victims were transported to local hospitals and are expected to recover.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at an afternoon press conference: "Our officers were confronted with an armed individual who had already injured multiple people and was continuing to pose a threat. They gave clear commands. They attempted to de-escalate. And when that threat did not stop, they took decisive action to stop it and to protect New Yorkers on one of the busiest train platforms in the city."

Tisch identified Griffin as having three prior unsealed arrests, two in New York City and one in Upstate New York, including one for menacing with a sharp object. He had no prior EDP history, meaning no emotionally disturbed person reports had ever been filed with the department. The entire incident was captured on body-worn camera, and Tisch confirmed the footage will be released in accordance with the NYPD's standard protocol for officer-involved shootings.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the attack in a post on X, writing: "I'm grateful to the NYPD for their quick response and for preventing additional violence. The three victims were taken to the hospital and are thankfully in stable condition." Governor Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on what she called a "horrific incident" and credited officers with acting quickly to stop the suspect.

The violence struck at a particularly visible location: Grand Central Terminal sees roughly 750,000 people pass through daily and ranks as the city's second-most-popular tourist attraction after Times Square. The attack triggered major delays across the 4, 5, 6, and 7 lines, snarling the Saturday morning commute across a broad stretch of the subway network. The incident surfaces a persistent tension in the city's transit safety narrative, even as the NYPD had recently reported that 2025 was the safest year on the subway since 2009, outside of pandemic years.