East Harlem man recounts chilling elevator ride with unhinged gunman killed in NYPD shoot-out

A menacing gunman who died after a Manhattan shootout with cops earlier threatened to kill a resident in an elevator before walking out of an Upper East Side building with a gun, the man told the Daily News.

Just moments before Elijah Brown, 20, was killed in a gun battle with cops, the unhinged youth pulled his weapon on an unsuspecting building tenant and threatened to kill him, the resident said.

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Mohammed, a cab driver, said he was waiting for the elevator when Brown sidled up next to him, and asked if he knew him.

“I said, ‘No. You live in this building?’ He say, ‘Ya,’” Mohammed recalled.

Once they were inside the elevator, he said Brown asked him how old he was. But Mohammed said he was paying more attention to the hand behind Brown’s back. Mohammed said he thought the guy might have had a knife until he moved his hand and pointed the gun.

“He said, ‘I will kill you,’” Mohammed recalled. “And I’m thinking, it is not real. It is maybe a toy, not a real gun. Is it a toy or something? And in this time, I saw his shoes off. He had  only socks. Then I am thinking, something’s wrong. Maybe this guy was drunk or taking something.”

Moments later, the elevator opened and Brown walked through the lobby and left the building, at Madison Ave. near E. 106th Street

Mohammed said he was scared he was going to die.

“God saved me,” he said. “Because this guy was abnormal. Anytime he’s gonna shoot — he’s gonna shoot me anytime. Just luck.”

Brown’s luck ran out a short time later along Madison Ave. near E. 96th St. Surveillance video obtained by the Daily News shows a young man in black, with no socks and holding a gun in his left hand, walking past pedestrians. When cops catch up with him on the crowded sidewalk, the gunman spins and fires at least one shot before he’s gunned down.

“This situation could have turned out differently,” said NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera. “An individual walked into multiple locations with a gun, menaced multiple people with that gun, and then shot at our officers in the middle of a busy sidewalk with civilians in close proximity.”

After threatening the cab driver, Brown headed to a nearby deli on Madison Ave. at E. 107 St. He pointed the firearm at a deli worker standing behind the counter and told him, “Call 911, I’m going down to the hospital to shoot it up,” according to police. Before leaving the deli, he stole the worker’s cell phone, police said.

Then, after placing his gun down beside a tree outside, Brown walked into Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he briefly tussled with a cop on security detail — telling him he had a gun — then came back outside and retrieved the firearm, according to police.

The off-duty cop followed Brown outside and radioed for backup.

A short time later, Brown was shooting it out with cops on the sidewalk.

Responding 19th Precinct police officers spotted Brown and got out of their cars at Madison and 96th St. Brown immediately started shooting at them, and the cops returned fire, according to police.

“Every day, our officers put on their uniforms and they encounter dangerous situations across this city,” Rivera said.

“But it’s another kind of danger when someone goes into a deli and the hospital with a gun and opens fire directly at the NYPD. This is the risk that every member of the NYPD faces every single day to keep this city safe.”

A cousin of the dead gunman said relatives of Brown live in the building where he pulled the gun in the elevator, and said he had probably been there for a visit.

“My cousin wasn’t just another young kid or troublemaker,” the cousin, 25, said. “He was going through something. Everybody goes through things. The family is still trying to figure everything out right now, and we’re just trying to stay strong.”

The cousin said he had seen Brown earlier in the day, and that he seemed fine.

“I’m one of his closest family members,” the cousin said. “He didn’t tell me nothing was wrong.”