The police said on Wednesday that an emotionally disturbed man in Hamilton Heights bludgeoned his grandmother and, as officers attempted to arrest him, struck a police officer in the head with a plastic elephant tusk, injuring him.
The officer, a 19-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was treated and released, the police said. Five other officers were also hospitalized following the morning melee, which occurred in an apartment on St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan.
The police said the grandmother, 67, who was not immediately identified, was taken to Harlem Hospital Center and was listed in critical but stable condition.
The cramped and chaotic confrontation began shortly 8 a.m., the police said. The mother of the man, Dominick Anderson, 27, summoned two officers patrolling the street near the apartment, telling them that her son was attacking her mother.
At the apartment, the two officers were soon joined by several others and found that Mr. Anderson's grandmother had been struck in the head and body with a blunt object, the police said.
Mr. Anderson struggled with the police, who used a Taser gun and pepper spray to attempt to restrain him as he swung with the object, which the police described as a plastic elephant tusk.
Mr. Anderson was taken to Harlem Hospital Center for a psychological evaluation. The police said an arrest would most likely follow the exam.
