A detective, a sergeant, and an officer shot 15 shots at the Cathedral of Saint John the Spiritual, mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said after the man began shooting just before 4pm.
"It is by the grace of God today," Shea said, "and no one was struck besides the gunman."
Witnesses told police that the man was screaming "kill me" as he shot, Shea said. Pending positive identification, the name of the man was withheld.
Shea said the man had a long criminal background and carried a backpack containing a can of fuel, rope, wire, tape, knives, and a well-worn Bible. The police commissioner called "heroic" the officers' acts.
The 45-minute concert had just ended and when a series of shots were fired, people started to walk backward, sending people running and driving down Amsterdam Avenue to the sidewalk.
The gunman was dressed in black, with a white baseball cap and face mask obscuring his face. As he emerged from behind a stone column at the top of the staircase, he carried a silver gun in one hand and a black one in the other.
Before the gunfire started due to the coronavirus pandemic, the concert featured cathedral choir members standing far apart on the stone steps wearing masks.
"It was all perfect, and then this guy began shooting at the end. Everyone is in shock,' Lisa Schubert, a cathedral spokeswoman, told The New York Times. "A lot of people could have been killed by that gunman. Hundreds of people were there, and he was shot at least 20 times.
If the shooter was shooting at people or firing in the air, it was not obvious.
"It's awful that this shocking act of violence has cut short our choir's gift to New York City, a much-needed afternoon of song and unity," cathedral spokeswoman Iva Benson said by email.
One of the biggest in the world is the cathedral. In 1892, work started and is still incomplete. Over its long history, the church has been connected to many New York luminaries and noteworthy events. The trustee was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
It hosted memorial services for puppeteer Jim Henson and choreographer Alvin Ailey, as well as speakers such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu over the years.
