Crazed T-shirt vendor is shot dead by cops after putting NYPD officer in a coma by bashing him in the head with a chair during nail salon melee

A suspect has been killed by police after attacking an NYPD officer with a chair during a nail salon melee, leaving him in critical condition.

The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Kwesi Ashun, was shot dead by officers after he attacked them as they tried to arrest another man in the Goldmine Nail Salon in Brooklyn on Friday.

The officer, a 21-year NYPD veteran whose name was not released, remained in a medically induced coma in critical but stable condition early on Saturday, authorities said. 

Officials said that the veteran and his rookie partner were flagged down by an employee of the nail salon on Mother Gaston Boulevard in the Brownsville neighborhood as they passed in a marked department van around 5.30pm.

The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Kwesi Ashun (above), was shot dead by officers after he attacked them as they tried to arrest another man in Brooklyn on Friday

Two uniformed cops were flagged down by employees at this nail salon in Brownsville, after a panhandler entered the shop and began urinating all over the floor

The employees complained to the officers they flagged down that a panhandler had come into the salon and started urinating all over the floor in front of disgusted customers.

A warrant check revealed the rogue urinator had an open warrant for criminal mischief, and the two officers began taking the man into custody.

At that point, Ashun, a T-shirt vendor who is well known in the neighborhood, apparently rushed into the salon and tried to stop the arrest, attacking the two officers.

Officials said that Ashun went berserk, beating the veteran officer over the head as the rookie tried in vain to subdue him with a Taser. 

The Taser had no effect, police said. Fending off the assault, the veteran officer pulled his gun and fired six times, hitting Ashun at least once in the head.

Ashun was declared dead at the scene. The rookie was treated for ringing in his ears. The veteran was rushed to Brookdale Hospital with head injuries, and placed in a medically induced coma.

Police say that Ashun (above) attacked the officers as they were trying to arrest the man who urinated all over the salon. The Taser had no effect on Ashun and police shot him

Police representatives blasted the assault on the officers, the latest such incident in New York.

Last week, two uniformed officers were assaulted from behind while attempting to detain a man in Brooklyn. 

Over the summer, numerous uniformed officers had buckets of water dumped on them by unruly gangs.

'An attack on a uniformed officer doing his duty is an attack on society at large,' Benjamin Tucker, the first deputy police commissioner, said at a news conference after the incident on Friday. 'And we can't have that.' 

Pat Lynch, head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, was even more outspoken.

'Once again we had police officers responding to a call for help from the public and was set upon,' Lynch said.

'This police officer spent his career in our busiest precincts serving the community. And he was set upon. For no reason!'

Friends and family of Ashun (above) were outraged at his death, wailing and screaming at NYPD officers at the scene

However, friends and family of Ashun were outraged at his death, wailing and screaming at NYPD officers at the scene.

'He struggled with mental illness and we tried desperately to get help for him to no avail,' his sister, Ama Bartley, 35, told the New York Post.

She said that Ashun had an October 14 appointment with a mobile crisis team from the city Department of Health.

But health workers determined after a short visit that he was not a threat to himself or others, she said.

'Eleven days later, this is what happens,' she said. 'We tried, we really tried to get him help. He was a beautiful soul. He was just battling some heavy things.'

Ashun was known to run a sidewalk stand selling T-shirts and caps that he hand embroidered.