Knife-Wielding Man Shot By Cops Didn’t Need To Be Killed, Says Mom
She called police to defend her from her own son, and now says they went too far.
Liliya Pilipenko, 54, said cops didn’t need to kill her son, 28-year-old Denis Volchkin, when he lunged at officers armed with a knife.
“It’s not a gun, it’s not a big knife, why shoot him?” Pilipenko said to the Daily News. “It’s a horrible situation.”
Volchkin was shot dead Friday evening after police responded to Pilipenko’s 911 call of a domestic dispute. Officers had been at the East 26th Street home earlier in the day when Pilipenko said Volchkin was choking her. Volchkin fled, and returned around 7:10pm armed with knives.
Pilipenko met officers in front of the house, led them through the back door to Volchkin, who was brandishing the weapons. Cops ordered he drop the blades. Instead, he lunged, police said.
The officers opened fire, hitting Volchkin in the chest. He was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.
The Daily News adds that Volkchkin had a checkered history with his family:
Between 2004 and 2009, cops were called four times to his home by Volchkin’s parents, police said. They arrested Volchkin twice for assaulting his mom, including once with a knife.
He has 11 unsealed prior arrests, cops said. Open cases include two Brooklyn busts for speeding drunk without a license that landed him in jail for 11 months, records show.
TMZ reports that back in May, Volchkin allegedly came at “Keeping up with the Kardashians” regular Jonathan Cheban with a knife in Mikasa sushi on Gravesend Neck Road, before Cheban’s bodyguard punched him.
