Dozens of bystanders grabbed their cellphones and hit the record button as a knife-wielding man skipped backward through Times Square on Aug. 11. Some witnesses, holding their cellphones above their heads to capture the action, ran alongside police officers as they pursued the man down Seventh Avenue with guns drawn.
The dramatic scene, which unfolded on a sunny afternoon at the crossroads of one of the world's busiest tourist destinations, ended as two officers confronted the man, Darrius H. Kennedy, 51, and fatally shot him when, the police say, he lunged at them.