The police shot and killed a man early Friday morning after he climbed the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and raised his arm and extended a knife toward officers, officials said at a news conference.

The fatal shooting happened just days after the police shot and killed a woman in Times Square who had attacked two people with knives, killing one.

On Friday, officers responded to a 911 call made at 3:28 a.m. that reported a man walking on the beams of the Brooklyn Bridge. The police officers climbed onto the bridge, using harnesses to clip onto the cables for safety, Gerard Dowling, the commanding officer of the Police Department’s emergency services unit, said at the news conference.

According to Chief Dowling, the man told the police officers that he had a bomb and wanted to die. After a standoff lasting about an hour, the man began quickly descending a bridge cable toward the officers, who were clipped on the same cable below him. The officers began moving backward, but were not able to move as quickly as the man, Chief Dowling said.

The man was within three feet of the closest officer when he raised his arm and extended a knife toward the officer, Chief Dowling said. An officer fired and struck the man, who was then brought down from the cables and given first aid. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement posted to social media on Friday that at the time of the 911 call the man “appeared to be attempting to jump from the bridge.”

“As is standard when an N.Y.P.D. officer discharges a firearm, the department will conduct an internal investigation, and body-worn camera footage will be released,” the mayor said in the statement.

The police told members of the public to “avoid the vicinity of the Brooklyn-bound Brooklyn Bridge” right before the 6 a.m. rush hour, according to a post on social media. By 8:30 a.m., the bridge was open to traffic.

In 2024, the latest year for which data was immediately available, 14 people were killed in police shootings, up from seven people in 2023 and 13 people in 2022.

The shooting on Friday followed two other high-profile incidences this summer where people climbed the Brooklyn Bridge.

In July, police officers responded to a woman they said had climbed the bridge in emotional distress and rescued her from a beam. In August, a man climbed all the way to the top of the bridge’s north tower and jumped off into the water after stripping naked. He was later arrested.