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Armed Man Shot By Police After Bizarre Incident In Fishtown

By Jericka Duncan

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An armed man threatened a family, vandalized some property and then stabbed himself in a series of erratic events Sunday evening in Fishtown.

"My sister thought someone was coming through the wall," said a woman who only wished to be identified as 'Tina.'

Tina, showed CBS 3 several knife marks on the side of her Fishtown home. She says the marks were made by the man who terrorized her family for nearly 20 minutes.

"He would go from room to room," said Tina. "He went to our bathroom upstairs and broke lights, stabbing walls." Tina says he never harmed her or any of her relatives but he did stab himself in the chest and neck area.

This bizarre story started around 11:30 Sunday night in Fishtown. Debbie Giangreco says the suspect targeted her Shackamaxon Street home first by turning on her outside water spigot. Then the man ripped her light pole from the ground.

"I called the police," explained Giangreco. "I'm running down the steps. When I get down the man ran to the corner and that's where he really went ballistic.

The suspect forced his way into Tina's home, located around the corner, on East Wildey Street. At the time, Tina says her husband, her father, her mother her sister and three children, between the ages of 9 and 16 were home. When the knife-wielding man finally left, police were outside. Officers told him to drop his weapon.

"He wouldn't and they shot him and he kept coming and they tased him and he kept coming," said one witness.

The man was eventually subdued by police. Authorities haven't released his name but say he is in critical but stable condition. Police shot the suspect once in the shoulder.

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