Attorney general: Officer justified in killing man who threatened toddler

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — An officer was justified in fatally shooting an Oneonta man who was threatening his toddler son with a knife last April, New York’s attorney general’s office wrote in a report.

Tyler Green threatened and then stabbed his partner, who was the mother of the nearly 2-year-old boy, and refused police orders to drop the knife, according to a report released late Friday. Officials concluded that he had grabbed the boy and swung the knife at him when he was shot by police, and that it was reasonable to believe that Green was about to use deadly physical force against the child.

“After a complete and exhaustive review of this incident, my office concluded that the officer was justified in his use of force to protect the life of a 2-year-old child,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “While this situation was tragic, it could have been even more devastating if not for the actions of the responding officers.”

Police had conducted a welfare check after Green had made violent threats that prompted Green’s partner’s sister to drive to the Oneonta police station to notify them, according to the report.

Green died while being transported by helicopter after a local hospital wasn’t equipped to treat him. In the report, the attorney general’s office noted that state law prohibited medical personnel from giving Green blood during the helicopter flight from Oneonta to Albany, and James recommended that the state permit air ambulances to carry and provide blood to critically injured patients.