NEW YORK — Images of two police officers in New York City open fire at a subway station, when they confronted a man with a knife, he was shot while he was standing still, with his arms at his sides and his back to the train.
In the days since Sunday’s shooting, police officials have repeatedly stressed that the officers fired after Derell Mickles “charged” at one of them and when their attempts to de-escalate the situation and use Tasers failed, they had little choice but to resort to deadly force to protect themselves and other passengers.
The imagesuploaded to the NYPD’s YouTube page on Friday, offers a different perspective on the shooting that left not only Mickles injured, but also a bystander who was struck in the head by a stray bullet. Gregory Delpeche, 49, was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where doctors had to open his skull to reduce swelling of the brain, his family said.
The shooting had already drawn scrutiny in a city where some 3 million people ride the subway every day. As New Yorkers waited for the footage to be released, many questioned the officers’ decision to open fire on a platform near other passengers.
Days before the footage was released, police officers defended the officers in a press conference wednesday.
“It happened because an individual decided to enter our subway system, refused to drop that weapon after repeated commands from officers, and then walked toward officers while armed,” said Interim NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell described the shooting as a “tragic situation” and said, “We did our best to protect our lives and the lives of the people on that train.”
As Chell described it, Mickles jumped a turnstile at the Sutter Avenue subway station in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn just after 3 p.m. Sunday. The two officers asked the 37-year-old Brooklyn resident to leave, which he did, but Mickles was seen unfurling a knife as he walked out.
Video footage from the station’s security camera was also released on Friday, without sound, but it appears that this is indeed happening.
When Mickles returned to the station a few minutes later, officers followed him up the stairs to the elevated platform. In the body camera footage, they tell Mickles to drop the knife. Mickles, standing with his hands behind his back, says, “I’m not dropping it, you’re going to have to shoot me.” Although no knife is visible, officers repeatedly beg him to show his hands, and he tells them to leave him alone.
As a train pulls into the station, the back-and-forth continues as Mickles backs into the train, his hands still behind his back, and the officers follow him. They repeatedly say “put it down” and then fire their Tasers, which appear to have little effect, and which lodge in Mickles’ T-shirt before he rips them out and walks off the train.
Now on the platform, Mickles holds the knife with the blade open. The officers follow him from different doors, and Mickles runs toward one officer, who runs backwards as the second officer runs toward them.
As the officers draw their weapons, Mickles comes to a complete stop, his hands at his sides, in front of the train. As Mickles turns his head slightly to his left, they open fire in his direction—which is also the direction of the train, where two passengers can be seen behind him. Mickles falls into the doorway as the passengers inside flee.
Chell said Wednesday: “Mr. Mickles charged at one of the officers and turned around. The other officer was standing there approximately 5 feet away. At that point, they both discharged their weapons, striking Mr. Mickles.”
In addition to Mickles and Delpeche, who were on the next train, one of the officers was injured in the shooting and a 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound.
In the chaotic aftermath another bystander came could pick up the knife and run away with it. Police put out a call for help finding that man on Monday, and officials said they were able to track him down and recover the knife.
Earlier Friday, Mickles, who appeared remotely from his hospital bed, pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, threatening a police officer with a knife, criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of jumping turnstiles. The judge set his bail at $200,000.
Mickles’ attorney, Jonathan Fink, said his client is in “very bad shape” after the shooting and still cannot walk.
“There seems to be a strong argument that the police used excessive force in this case,” said Fink, who had not yet seen the video. “The fact is that my client is sitting in a hospital bed with serious injuries.”
Police reform advocates said the shooting is the latest example of “reckless, excessive use of force without consequences” by the police department under Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain.
“This horrific event that put dozens of transit riders in danger did not happen out of nowhere,” Loyda Colon, of the advocacy group Communities United for Police Reform, said in a statement Friday. “It happened because the mayor has invested in flooding our subway system with officers and communities to criminalize mental illness and poverty, rather than making public transportation, housing and services affordable and available to New Yorkers.”
Earlier this week, Adams said he felt the officers responded appropriately after reviewing the videos. He also said he visited the 26-year-old woman in the hospital and spoke with her mother.
“I saw the steps that those police officers took,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Over and over again, over and over again, trying to reason with the offender. And so some people said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be enforcing fare evasion.’ No. This is not a free-for-all city.”
___
Associated Press editor Karen Matthews contributed to this report.