A man with a machete slashed and injured three people at New York City's Grand Central subway station on Saturday before he was fatally shot by police, officials said. 

The NYPD said officers encountered the armed man on the 4/5/6 train platform at Grand Central-42nd Street at around 9:40 a.m. after a civilian alerted them and they found a slashing victim.

The man, identified as 44-year-old Anthony Griffin, was armed with a large knife described as a machete and "behaving erratically, repeatedly stating that he was 'Lucifer,'" NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. 

Griffin, who had three prior arrests, refused numerous orders to drop the knife and advanced toward the officers before one officer shot him twice, Tisch said. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. 

"The individual refused to comply with at least 20 orders to drop the knife. Officers also attempted to deescalate and offer assistance, saying, 'We are going to get you help,'" the commissioner said.

The slashings appeared to be random, according to investigators. 

Tisch said Griffin boarded a Manhattan-bound 7 train at Vernon Boulevard in Queens at around 9:30 a.m. When the train arrived at Grand Central, he slashed an 84-year-old man on the platform and then went upstairs to the 4/5/6 platform, where he slashed a 65-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman, she said.

The victims were hospitalized with serious injuries, but they were not expected to be life-threatening. One victim suffered a skull fracture and severe lacerations, Tisch said.

Officials do not believe the victims know each other. 

The NYPD issued an alert to avoid the area around Grand Central and the MTA said 4, 5, 6 and 7 trains were bypassing the station due to the investigation. Passengers were given bus vouchers.

"It's a little panic under there," one subway rider visiting from Montreal said.

"We get out and all of a sudden, we're herded down the aisles. There's police. There's dogs," said another subway rider visiting from Utah.

Subway service at Grand Central later resumed.

"No officers were injured in this incident and the whole incident was captured on body-worn camera. This remains an active investigation and we will provide additional information as it becomes available," Tisch said.

The NYPD commissioner said the seemingly random attack is "exactly why we recently increased our presence in the transit system."

"We recently added more than 175 additional officers to subway patrol," Tisch said.

Transit advocate Charlton D'Souza, with Passengers United, said more mental health resources should be present at transit hubs.

"You need clinicians, you need psychologists, and you need them down there to help them," he said. "Once passengers have that traumatic experience, they don't wanna come down to the subway system anymore."

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement, "I'm grateful to the NYPD for their quick response and for preventing additional violence ... The NYPD is conducting an internal investigation and will release body-worn camera footage, as it does in all incidents involving the discharge of an officer's firearm."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was also briefed on the incident and "grateful to our brave officers who acted quickly to stop the suspect."

"New Yorkers deserve to feel safe every time they step onto a train platform, and we will do everything it takes to protect them," the governor added.