A troubled man with a “beer in one hand and a firearm in the other” was busted outside a Bronx precinct Thursday morning — after pointing the gun at himself and shooting at an NYPD van, police said.
The man, identified by police sources as Michael McKenna, displayed the weapon as he sat on top of a silver SUV outside the 45th Precinct stationhouse at Barkley Avenue and East Tremont Avenue around 7:25 a.m., police said.
“That individual emerged from the sunroof and appeared to be holding a beer in one hand and a firearm in the other,” Captain Isaac Soberal said at an afternoon press conference at the scene.
McKenna fired the weapon once at an unoccupied police van, police said.
“The man was holding the firearm and discharged a round, which struck a nearby unoccupied police van,” Captain Christopher Giordano said. “He was not shot and no others were struck. The man appeared to be startled by the gun going off and laid back on the roof of the SUV.”
The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit tried to ask McKenna questions throughout the ordeal but his answers were simply “yes” or “no,” Chief of Special Operations Harry Wedin said.
“When they took him into custody, I am told he was crying,” Wedin said.
McKenna was taken to Jacobi Hospital.
His ex-wife told cops they divorced in 2020 and that he had been acting erratically and using drugs, police sources said.
Reckless endangerment charges were pending against him, the sources said.
“They are going to interview family members and witnesses to see if they can put together why he was at this location,” Wedin said.
The bomb squad was on scene later in the morning checking the car, sources said.
Additional reporting by Sean Conlon
