“Before today’s announcement – which is something that should put a smile on your face – I wanted to talk about something a little more serious. Let me update you on the serious stabbing earlier today of Police Officer Eder Loor by an assailant in East Harlem.

“At about 10:30 this morning, a call was made to 911 about an emotionally disturbed person at 1345 Third Avenue. Two officers, including Officer Loor, responded to the call, arriving on foot. They found the man in question in the building lobby at that address, and leaving for the street. 

“They approached him and told him that they would take him to a hospital. He then produced a knife and attacked Officer Loor. The knife apparently penetrated the Officer’s skull at the left temple. Officer Loor, who is 28 years old and has been a veteran since 2006 of the Police Department, was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai Hospital.

“I just came from the hospital where I met with doctors attending to him, with Commissioner Kelly, other police supervisors and with Officer Loor’s wife. And then I also visited his patrol partner. The doctors just before I left, the last update I got, was that he is in critical condition, but they were very optimistic.

“I think they would say cautiously optimistic, but the smiles were on their faces. Having said that, he’s certainly not out of the woods yet and we really won’t know for a few hours. But I would ask all New Yorkers to have his recovery in our prayers.

“I can also tell you that the suspect in this stabbing has been arrested by the police. The knife was recovered at the scene.

“Officer Loor is assigned to the 23rd Police Precinct where police have reduced crime by 28 percent since 2001. And I talked to his partner who is just being in trauma center, just being treated of high blood pressure to get him to calm down and he’s going to be fine. And I congratulated him on doing exactly – this was a textbook example of what they should do. Unfortunately, even when you do the right thing policing, as we all know, is a very dangerous job. And let us hope that this turns out to be happy.

“Officer Loor has a four or five-year-old, I forget which, daughter, and his wife is pregnant with a son. And she’s going to have the baby at the same hospital that Officer Loor was at, so I told her they’d probably give her a special room or something. But hopefully he’ll be okay.

“This serious attack, and the Fire Department Lieutenant Richard Nappi’s tragic death yesterday at a fire in Brooklyn I just think should remind us how New York’s Bravest and New York’s Finest risk their lives every day to protect the rest of us.”