The maniac who injured three elderly people in Grand Central Station before being shot dead by cops only kept his machete as protection, his friend claimed.
Family friend Deborah Brown refused to believe that deranged attacker Anthony Griffin would have committed the crime – even though she admitted he had mental health problems and carried a machete with him, she said.
“If he did this — they’re saying he did this — I want to see proof of that,” Brown, the mother of Anthony Griffin’s longtime partner, said. He told News12 In an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Griffin was shot and killed by officers after he attacked three people on subway platforms 4, 5 and 6 uptown around 9:50 a.m. Saturday morning and refused to comply with orders to drop his machete, the NYPD said.
Police said Griffin’s attack left an 85-year-old man and a 65-year-old man with deep cuts. He also injured a 70-year-old woman’s shoulder, police said.
Brown said she first heard from her daughter that Griffin was involved in the attack and fired the gun. Neighbors told The Post that Griffin was a rapper who used the name “Fox 5.”
“My daughter called me. She was emotional. She was crying. Mom! Mom! They killed Fox, mom!” Brown told News12.
Griffin’s subway attack is out of character for him and would never hurt anyone, according to Brown, who wished the cops would have used a stun gun on him instead.
“You could have tasered him, made him drop the gun. You didn’t have to shoot him and kill him,” Brown said.
But she also admitted that Griffin kept the machete on him for protection and that he had recently been suffering from mental problems.
“I also want to say that maybe something happened, but it still isn’t right,” Brown said.