By Joseph Goldstein and Andy Newman
The New York Times Blogs
NEW YORK — A call to take an emotionally disturbed man to the hospital ended in a life-threatening injury for Officer Eder Loor, 28, who emerged from surgery in late afternoon.
A man with a concealed knife plunged the blade into the left temple of a police officer responding to an emergency call placed by the man’s mother on Tuesday morning, the police said.
The violence broke out on Third Avenue, not far from the man’s building in East Harlem, after the officer, Eder Loor, 28, and his partner told the man he had to be taken to a hospital, as his mother had requested, the police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the blade had penetrated Officer Loor’s skull, causing bleeding on his brain, which required surgery. Before the procedure, Mr. Kelly said the officer’s surgeon was “cautiously optimistic.” On Tuesday afternoon, Officer Loor was in critical condition, heavily sedated and under observation at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Officers from the 23rd Precinct quickly apprehended the man, Terrence Hale, 26, who had been arrested in the past, the authorities said, including in a knife attack in 2006. Mr. Hale was taken to Metropolitan Hospital Center for psychiatric evaluation.
The attack illustrates how quickly routine police work can turn treacherous, as officers wade into complicated situations that do not always present telltale signs of danger.
“Today is another reminder of how, in a split second, a police officer’s life may be jeopardized,” Mr. Kelly said. “We’ve seen that in a rash of shootings over the last four months, and in seemingly routine stops.”
He cited a 2007 episode in which a police officer was injured when he was stabbed in the head after approaching a suspect who was smoking on a subway platform. And he noted two other, separate stabbings of officers in the past month.
The attack on Officer Loor occurred at 10:30 a.m. near East 107th Street, outside the Franklin Plaza Apartments, where Mr. Hale lived with his mother, Vearry Hale, the police said. Ms. Hale called 911 that morning, saying her son was bipolar and had stopped taking his medications, the police said.
When Officer Loor and his partner, Luckson Merisme, arrived, they were met on the sidewalk by Ms. Hale, who said her son was in their apartment, Mr. Kelly said.
As the three walked indoors, they encountered Mr. Hale, who was coming out of the elevator in the lobby, Mr. Kelly said. Ms. Hale confronted her son, telling him he needed hospitalization, to which Mr. Hale responded, “I’ll go by myself,” and then walked out the door, Mr. Kelly said.
The officers quickly caught up to Mr. Hale. Standing on each side of him, they explained that they would take him to the hospital, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said.
Without any warning, Mr. Kelly said, Mr. Hale stabbed Officer Loor in the temple. At first, Officer Merisme thought his partner had been punched, Mr. Kelly said, only realizing what had occurred after Officer Loor cried out and blood began to run down his face.
In an interview in her apartment, Ms. Hale accused the police of irritating her son, saying the officers had pushed him against a storefront. She said Mr. Hale had punched an officer, but had not been armed, adding that she believed the police were framing him.
“The system didn’t work,” Ms. Hale said, “and now he’s in trouble.”
Ms. Hale said her son had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
A law enforcement official said Mr. Hale had pleaded guilty to assault in the 2006 knife attack and a 2002 assault in New York. Mr. Hale has also been arrested in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the police said.
The police were summoned to the family’s apartment within the past two years after Mr. Hale threatened to kill himself, another law enforcement official said.
Officer Loor has spent all of his six years in the Police Department in the 23rd Precinct, which covers East Harlem, and he is a member of the Air Force National Guard.
In remarks to reporters after visiting Officer Loor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg observed that the officer’s wife, Dina, was pregnant with the couple’s second child.
“And she’s going to have the baby at the same hospital that Officer Loor was at, so I told her they’d probably give her a special room,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Hopefully, he’ll be O.K.”
Copyright 2012 The News York Times Company