NYPD officer struck with metal chair released from hospital

An NYPD officer who was in a medically-induced coma after being attacked with a metal chair was lifted from the coma and realeased from the hospital Monday.

NEW YORK - An NYPD officer who was in a medically-induced coma after being attacked with a metal chair was lifted from the coma and released from the hospital Monday.

Officer Lesly Lafontant, a 21-year veteran of the force, was rushed to Brookdale Hospital Friday following a confrontation at a nail salon in Brownsville shortly after 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The incident began when a man entered the salon to use the bathroom but instead started urinating on the floor.

Salon workers flagged two uniformed officers on patrol and asked them to remove the man, said Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison.

The officers attempted to arrest the man, who had an active warrant, but he resisted, added Harrison.

At that point a second man entered the store "and engaged in a violent struggle with the uniformed officers."

"One of the officers deployed a Taser, but it was ineffective in stopping the threat," Harrison said. He said the man "continued his violent struggle with the officers by raising up a metal chair and striking one of the officers in the head."

He said the officer fired at the man six times. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities have not identified the officer or the man who was killed in the shooting.

The shooting was the fourth fatal police shooting by a New York City police officer in less than two weeks.

Police officials who spoke at a news conference at the hospital where the injured officer was being treated stressed the seriousness of his injuries.

"An attack on a uniformed officer doing his duty is an attack on society at large, and we can't have that," First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said.

Harrison said, "This incident underscores the dangers officers face each and every day."

Pat Lynch, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, added, "This police officer spent his career in our busiest precincts serving the community and he was set upon for no reason. There is never, ever an acceptable reason to attack a New York City police officer."

Officials said the injured officer's partner was treated for ringing in his ears and released.

The man who touched off the chain of events by urinating on the store was later arrested, police said.

A state legislator from a Brooklyn district who was in the area at the time of the shooting described a scene of "mayhem."

"Children were running," Democratic Assemblywoman Latrice Walker told TV station NY1. "Families were afraid. My daughter was screaming."

She added, "Our community is definitely traumatized today because this was a senseless death."