Saheed Vassell
New York City's police department said fatally shot a mentally ill black man who was carrying a pipe on a Brooklyn street corner on Wednesday after mistaking the metal rod for a gun.
The NYPD said they received three separate 911 calls describing a black man wearing a brown jacket and pointing "a silver firearm" at people on a Crown Heights street at 4:40 p.m. ET, NYPD Chief Terence A. Monahan told reporters.
Surveillance video from buildings on the street showed a "man brandishing what appears to be a firearm — pointing it at people," Monahan said.
Five officers — three in plainclothes and two in uniform — encountered the suspect at a street corner.
"The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," Monahan said.
Four of the officers fired a total 10 rounds at the man, striking him.
He was transported to a local hospital where he died.
The victim was identified as Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old Brooklyn resident who had bipolar disorder, according to his family.
NYPD
The "silver firearm" that police said they thought he was brandishing was a silver pipe with a knob at the end, authorities said.
The victim's father, Eric Vassell, told the New York Times that that his son had bipolar disorder and had been admitted to hospitals several times in recent years.
His family and neighbors said that he was a familiar figure on the street corner and was known to be mentally ill, even by local police.
Police told the Times that they had arrested Vassell before and had classified him as an "emotionally disturbed person."
Defending the officers' actions, Monahan said that the 911 calls they received on Wednesday were not for an "emotionally disturbed person."
"This was a call of a man pointing what 911 callers said they felt was a gun," Monahan said. "When we encounter him, he turns with what appears to be a gun at the officers."
None of the officers were wearing body cameras, according to Monahan.
Eric Vassell told NY1 that his son didn't have access to his guns "because he's been sick for a long time." He described his son as a polite and kind man who just walked around the neighborhood.
The fatal shooting happened less than three weeks after Sacramento police officers fatally shot an unarmed 22-year-old black man in his own backyard after he came at them with what what they said they believed to be a weapon, but what turned out to be his cell phone. Stephon Clark was shot six times in the back and twice in his side, according to an autopsy commissioned by his family, triggering large national protests.
Vassell's shooting, which took place on the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, sparked anger among residents of the area who questioned why the police didn't restrain or taser him.
A rally demanding justice over Vassell's death is being held on Thursday at the street corner where he was killed.
LINK: Sacramento Police Shot And Killed An Unarmed Black Man In His Own Backyard
from BuzzFeed - USNews https://ift.tt/2JmG4n5
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