Officials: Woman shot by NYPD cops subject of 9 previous emergency calls
A 10-inch knife was recovered at the scene of the shooting, police said. Credit: NYPD
The Queens woman shot dead by NYPD officers Monday was the subject of nine police calls for assistance since 2000, including one for emotional disturbance, just a week before she lost her life, officials said.
Susan Muller, 54, lunged at officers with a knife inside a two-family home on 69th Street in Maspeth after they responded to a 911 call of a burglary at the residence, police said. Investigators believe Muller made the 911 call before the shooting.
Although some of the cops from three Queens precincts who responded to the call were wearing body cameras, the shooting was only captured in the audio portion of the recordings, officials said, because video from the body cameras was obscured by the torsos of officers as they moved inside the home.
One of the cops was heard telling Muller to “drop the knife,” at which point a female voice is heard screaming in the moment before officers fire three shots, officials said. The victim, who was struck multiple times in the torso, died at the scene despite CPR efforts by officers. A 10-inch knife was recovered at the scene, police said.
“This was very, very quick,” said one police official of the confrontation. Police said one of the responding officers had conflict-intervention training.
The NYPD didn't identify the officers involved in the shooting but said they came from the 110th, 111th and 114th precincts. Cops from the 104th Precinct, which patrols the area where the shooting occurred, were involved in the funeral of a fellow officer from the precinct so neighboring commands responded, officials said.
According to police, there were nine calls for assistance from August 2000 to this month that involved Muller. Three were domestic calls and three were for intoxication, officials said. One call was about an animal and two calls were about an emotionally disturbed person. The last call about an emotional disturbance on Sept. 9, ended with Muller transported to a hospital where she was treated and released, officials said.
Police said the NYPD force investigation division was conducting an in-depth probe into the shooting. While the NYPD has in the past year released body camera video of other police shootings, a legal dispute is preventing further releases, officials said.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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