Police fatally shot a crazed Bronx father yesterday after he threatened to murder his wife and three children, authorities said.
“I have to kill the children and my wife and send them to heaven,” Mauricio Jacques, 35, allegedly shouted to cops who stormed his Soundview apartment.
“I don’t care about killing myself and going to hell.”
When cops entered the second-floor Commonwealth Avenue apartment, they saw Jacques, a cook at a Harlem restaurant, holding on to his wife with one hand — while wielding a 10-inch knife in the other. One of the cops pulled the woman free and she fled with the kids, a girl, 11, and 9- and 5-year-old boys.
Officers called in hostage negotiators.
When they couldn’t convince Jacques to drop his weapon, police fired rubber bullets at him and Tasered him twice — but he kept slashing at them with the knife, they said.
Two officers were struck by the blade — but their bulletproof vests protected them from injury. Other officers then fired six shots, hitting Jacques at least once.
The shooting appeared to fall within police guidelines, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
“I knew something was wrong with that guy,” said Jacques’ neighbor Julio Rodriguez. “He had an aggressive attitude. I’m sad for those kids.”