The NYPD Friday released bodycam footage of a police shooting at a Brooklyn L subway station that left four injured by gunshots, including an officer hit by friendly fire — touching off renewed debate on whether the shooting was justified.
The video vividly shows the sequence of events leading up to the decision by two police officers to fire on a knife-wielding fare beater who’d repeatedly ignored orders to drop his knife. The NYPD has said the officers were operating within guidelines to deal with an attack, but the video was cited by critics who said the police had no reason to open fire in a crowded subway car.
“This was a mass shooting inside of our subway system. Four people shot,” said Nick Liakas, a lawyer representing the family of 49-year-old Gregory Delpeche, a bystander who was critically wounded. “That’s a mass shooting at the hands of the NYPD. It never should have happened and we’re praying that Mr. Delpeche holds onto his life.”
PBA President Patrick Hendry said the officers were confronted with a person brandishing a knife and threatening to kill the officers.
“His actions put our police officers and everyone in that subway station in a horrible, dangerous situation,” Hendry said. “He is solely responsible for all of the harm caused in this incident. Our hearts go out to the injured civilians and their families. This dangerous career criminal needs to be held accountable for all the pain he has caused.”
The Sunday shooting was sparked by a fare-beater, Darrell Mickles, walking through an open gate at the Sutter Ave. L station in Brownsville and later brandishing a knife at a pair of NYPD officers, Edmund Mays and Alex Wong.
The footage, assembled into a narrative format by the NYPD, lays out the sequence of events that led top the shooting, beginning with CCTV surveillance video from inside the station.
In what proved to be the first encounter with Mickles, he jumps over the turnstile as Mays and Wong pursue him through the subway gate. A minute later Mickles exits through the turnstile, holding a knife. Minutes later, CCTV shows Mickles return to the station, where he stands by the gate until passengers exiting the train open it and he walks through. Again, the officers follow him.
The bodycam footage from both officers shows the pair of cops trailing Mickles up three flight of steps and to the middle of the elevated platform. There, Mickles confronts them.
“You’re going to make me kill you if you don’t f—-n’ leave me the f–k alone,” Mickles can be heard saying on Wong’s footage as he is being followed by the cops.
Mickles stops, and turns to face the officers with his hands behind his back. One officer asks to see his hands, and the other says “Drop the knife, drop the knife.”
“I’m not dropping nothing, shoot me,” Mickles replies.
Moments later, a train pulls in and the doors open. Mickles repeatedly says “Leave me alone” amid commands to put the knife down and show his hands.
“It’s down,” says Mickles, and then walks backwards into the train.
“Don’t touch me!” Mickles yells, as the officers follow him onto the train.
The snaps of Tasers can be heard next, and Mickles walks briefly toward Wong, holding the knife.
Another Taser is then fired. Mickles walks off the subway and back onto the platform, pulling the Taser wires out of his clothing and flinging them aside.
Mays then runs ahead of Mickles on the platform, and Wong runs behind him. Once Mays is in front of Mickles, facing him in a shooting stance, Mickles stops running and stands still — the knife now in his hand by his side.
Both officers open fire. and Mickles turns and starts to walk back onto the subway but collapses, still holding the knife.
“Put it down!” both officers yell, as passengers can be heard reacting in horror and begin to flee the train.
Mays, who was shot in his armpit under his vest, can be heard saying “I’m shot, I’m shot.”
According to the text that accompanied the video, Mays fired three times while Wong fired six shots.
Mickles, who was critically injured, was indicted Friday on charges of assault on a police officer and held on $1.5 million bond. In addition to Delpeche, Mays and Mickles, a 26-year-old passenger was grazed in the shooting.
The NYPD over the last week has said the officers repeatedly told Mickles to drop the knife and that when they fired he was only a few feet away — well within what is considered the zone of safety — brandishing the weapon. The shooting remains under investigation.
“NY State law and NYPD policy give police officers the authority to use reasonable force under appropriate circumstances,” said Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves in comments on the video released Friday.
But members of Delpeche’s family, who gathered late Friday at the L station where the shooting happened, said the video shows the cops did not need to fire on Mickles. Delpeche was on his way to work at Woodhull Hospital when he was hit and is now in critical condition with brain damage after being struck in the left side of his head.
“He wasn’t a threat. Why didn’t they call for more backup? They should be fired,” said Greg Nougues, the victim’s cousin. “Look at the video. How can anybody think that’s justified?”
Another cousin, Cathleen Jeudi, called for accountability in the shooting.
“It just baffles me. They are covering it up, but you can’t cover up with that video,” she said., “My cousin is fighting for his life. Every day it eats away at our family. In the video, we see it differently. He’s just standing there and you all opened fire.”
Public advocate Jumaane Williams added to the criticism.
“This video is disgusting,” he said. ” Leaders from the Mayor to leaders in the NYPD told us to wait for the video and they’d be absolved. How dare you do that to us. We can see with our own two eyes nowhere around him was someone in danger. You cannot kill people because you grow impatient, you just cannot do it.”
With Colin Mixson and Thomas Tracy