The household of a former cop and FDNY lieutenant shot lifeless by NYPD officers throughout a bloody standoff at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital is searching for solutions, saying he checked in two days earlier than the standoff as a result of he thought he was having a stroke and that he had no historical past of psychological sickness.
Michael Lynch, 62, went to New York Presbyterian-Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on Wednesday together with his spouse, anxious about stress in his head and tingling in his palms, his distraught partner informed the Every day Information.
On Friday, Lynch barricaded himself in an eighth-floor room on the hospital, chopping himself and taking an aged man and a hospital safety guard hostage, police stated. After a minutes-long standoff during which Lynch refused “dozens” of instructions to drop a damaged piece of porcelain, and repeated efforts by cops to push into the room, officers shot and killed Lynch, police stated.
“Shocked. Completely shocked. Everyone can’t put their finger round this,” Lynch’s spouse, Dolores Lynch, informed The Information.
“Like, what is going on right here?”
Courtesy of household
Retired FDNY Lieutenant Michael Lynch, 62, was fatally shot by police inside NewYork Presbyterian – Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on Thursday evening. (Courtesy of household)
She recalled how the tragic occasions unfolded, telling the Information she took him to the hospital by cab Wednesday after waking her up in the course of the evening with dangerous numbness and head ache.
“He was admitted. They have been doing what they often do when somebody is admitted. Someplace between being admitted and this incident, one thing occurred. What? We don’t know,” stated the household’s lawyer, Kenneth Montgomery.
Lynch’s spouse stated he was given an MRI on Thursday, and the household hoped he’d be discharged quickly after. She thought he had merely gone to make use of the lavatory earlier than the bloody standoff, she stated. Montgomery stated he’ll be searching for medical data, post-mortem outcomes and toxicology reviews to shed some mild on what occurred.
However the household was clear about the truth that Lynch had no psychiatric issues.
“He’s a retired policeman. Retired hearth division. Retired bus driver. Father. Husband. From all accounts an excellent group member who had some medical points that he thought he was having a stroke,” Montgomery stated. “This isn’t somebody who will be painted as some maniacal particular person of violence or historical past and even any historical past of psychological well being.”
Lynch served as an NYPD officer till the Nineteen Nineties, when he was accepted into the FDNY, his household stated. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, labored on the Sept. 11 restoration effort, and in the end retired in 2008.
“My father was an honorable, caring household man, beloved by everybody he knew. Dropping him is not possible to grasp. He went to a spot of therapeutic, in search of assist, and by no means got here house. It’s devastating past phrases,” his daughter, Dr. Bionqua S. Lynch Johnson, stated.
Courtesy of household
Former NYPD officer Michael Lynch is seen in his NYPD uniform in an undated photograph. Lynch, 62, was fatally shot by police inside NewYork Presbyterian – Brooklyn Methodist Hospital on Thursday evening. (Courtesy of household)
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, addressing the incident, referred to Lynch as “emotionally disturbed” in a put up on X.com Friday.
Lynch’s household disputed different, early accounts suggesting he might need had a historical past of emotional disturbance. An NYPD supply stated Sunday that police had no interactions with him as an emotionally disturbed particular person till the hospital standoff.
“We’re referring inquiries to NYPD. As a result of affected person privateness, we can not present extra particulars,” the hospital stated Sunday.
Courtesy of household
Retired FDNY Lieutenant Michael Lynch (proper) is pictured together with his son, Michael Lynch, Jr., (left). (Courtesy of household)
When cops arrived on the scene on the about 5:30 p.m. Friday on the Park Slope hospital, they discovered the door, partitions and ground across the room drenched in blood, police stated.
Lynch confirmed the bloody weapon and for greater than there minutes, “the officers stood exterior the door and issued dozens of verbal instructions to the topic to drop the weapon,” stated NYPD Assistant Chief Charlie Minch, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
“The topic refused to drop the weapon and forcefully tried to shut the door to the room a number of occasions.”
The officers fired a taser and a gun, however didn’t hit Lynch, and he once more tried to shut the door to forestall the cops from getting in, Minch stated.
“For the subsequent 4 minutes officers once more tried to kick the door open and issued many verbal instructions to the topic to drop the weapon,” Minch stated. “(He) then superior in the direction of the officers once more, nonetheless with the weapon in his hand. Officers once more deployed Tasers however these deployments weren’t efficient. Officers then discharged their weapons and the topic was struck.”
Montgomery wonders if it may hve been dealt with in a different way.
“He’s a human being. He has no historical past of psychological well being — and even past that, simply because you’ve got a historical past of psychological well being doesn’t imply it’s best to die in a hail of bullets both,” he stated.
Gardiner Anderson / New York Every day Information
Police reply to an officer-involved capturing at New York Presbyterian Methodist Hospital on seventh Ave. in Brooklyn on Thursday, January 8, 2026. (Gardiner Anderson / New York Every day Information)
Lynch was born in London, and got here to the U.S. at age 6, his spouse stated. She’s been with him since 1989, and so they have two grownup kids and three grandchildren collectively.
“If I used to be to marry him once more, I might marry him 100 occasions over,” she stated. “Fantastic husband, great father, grandfather, buddy to the group. He helps folks, carries their luggage, clear the snow. Neighbors all of them know him. He’s just like the mayor of the block.”
His son, Michael Fitzgerald Lynch Jr., recalled his endurance when spending time with 6-year-old autistic grandson.
“My dad was a really adorned man. He wore many hats and lots of footwear and he’s lead me to be an excellent particular person with a number of abilities,” he stated. “He’s guided me to be very pushed and to be very targeted and to be a supplier.”
Courtesy of household
Retired FDNY Lieutenant Michael Lynch, 62. (Courtesy of household)
The latest addition to Lynch’s household got here with the delivery of his granddaughter on Christmas Eve.
“I’m heartbroken that my father didn’t get to satisfy his latest grandchild,” Lynch Johnson stated. “We had plans for him to return go to us later this month and now that can by no means occur. He was an exceptional grandfather…. He by no means missed a beat when it got here to household. He was all the time there for each vacation, each birthday, each main milestone.”
She added, “His presence, charisma and humor made each household gathering that rather more particular. He was a one among type man. My dad was my hero.”
With Thomas Tracy and Emma Seiwell
