"Martial arts fantasy"

As a memento of his last visit to his native Ukraine, Anatoly Dmitriev brought back an ax with a yellow handle measuring almost 19 inches long.

Dmitriev brandished the ax or a pair of nunchucks as he jogged early mornings in nearby Bronx Park and on Pelham Parkway near his apartment, indulging in what his son called a benign martial arts fantasy.

And Dmitriev's neighbors at the Brady Court coops said they would see him jogging without a shirt or shoes, even in the winter. They said the 62-year-old man was odd, but harmless.

The ax ultimately became his downfall Saturday evening, when officers shot him dead after he approached them holding the ax despite orders to drop the weapon, police said.

Source