The NYPD on Friday released body-worn camera footage from a weekend shooting at a Brooklyn subway station that started as a confrontation between police and an apparent fare-beater who they have said charged at officers with a knife.
Two police officers opened fire Sunday afternoon at a Brownsville stop after the man accused of skipping the station turnstile allegedly went after the cops with a knife. He was hit several times, as were two bystanders, a 49-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman.
The 49-year-old man, identified as Gregory Delpeche, was hit in the head as he was on his way into work at Woodhull Hospital. He was taken to the hospital and was in critical condition. Doctors had to open up his skull to reduce brain swelling, though was making improvements, according to his family and their attorney.
The 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound. One of the officers was also shot, in the armpit. The woman, the officer and the suspect were all expected to survive.
The suspected knife-wielding farebeater, 37-year-old Derrell Mickles, faced a judge virtually from his hospital bed Friday. He pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, menacing an officer, weapons possession and evading his subway fare. The judge set his bail at $200,000.
Mickles' lawyer, Jonathan Fink, said his client is in “very bad shape” and unable to walk.
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“It seems there’s a strong argument there was disproportionate force used by the police in this case," said Fink, who had not yet seen the video at the time of the hearing.
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What did surveillance video and police bodycam footage show?
According to police and surveillance video from the station, Mickles jumped a turnstile at the subway station just after 3 p.m. Sunday, right in front of two officers. They then followed Mickles and asked him to leave, which he did — but as he was doing so, he was seen on camera holding an unfurled knife as he exited.
When Mickles returned to the station a few minutes later, the officers followed him up the steps onto the elevated platform, surveillance video shows. 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'll have to shoot me.” The officers repeatedly implore him to show them his hands. He tells them to leave him alone.
When a train pulls into the station, Mickles backs onto it once the doors open. The officers follow him on. They repeatedly say “put it down” and then fire their Tasers, which have little effect, embedding 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 out from different doors, and Mickles runs in the direction of one officer, who runs backwards.
When the officers pull their guns, Mickles comes to a complete stop, his hands by his sides, the train right behind him. As Mickles turns his head slightly to the left, they fire multiple shots as he remained standing still. Mickles falls into train while the passengers inside flee.
See footage from surveillance cameras and the officers' bodycams at this link (Warning: Content may be disturbing for some viewers.)
The knife he was seen on video wielding was taken from the crime scene by someone else, despite police initially stating that the weapon had been recovered. The knife was later recovered by police as part of the investigation.
All shots were fired by NYPD officers, authorities have said.
Bystander's family calls for accountability, NYPD defends officers
During a press conference held Friday evening after they viewed the bodycam footage, Nick Liakas, the attorney for the family of Delpeche, called the NYPD's narrative of what happened "a gross mischaracterization of what we see," slamming the officer's decision to open fire.
"There was no need for any bullets to fly in the subway station, especially in a setting where the officers put innocent bystanders at risk. And it resulted in Gregory getting shot in the back of the head," said Liakas.
"This unnecessary tragedy could have been avoided had they deployed proper deescalation measures," Liakas said earlier in the week.
In the days since Sunday’s shooting, police officials have repeatedly emphasized that the officers fired after Derell Mickles “charged" at one of them, and when their attempts to deescalate the situation and use Tasers had failed — leaving them with little choice but to resort to deadly force to protect themselves and passengers.
"It happened because an individual decided to enter our subway system. He refused to drop that weapon, after repeated orders by the officers. And then he advanced towards the officers while he was armed," the NYPD interim commissioner, Thomas Donlon, said.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell described the shooting as a “tragic situation” and said “we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of people on that train.”
In Chell's telling on Wednesday, he said: “Mr. Mickles charged one of the officers and then turned around and the other officer was standing there within approximately 5 feet. It was at this time they both discharged their weapons.”
Police reform advocates have condemned the shooting.
“This horrific event that endangered dozens of transit users didn’t happen in a vacuum," Loyda Colon, of the group Communities United for Police Reform, said in a statement Friday. "It happened because the mayor has invested in flooding officers into our subway system and communities to criminalize mental illness and poverty, rather than in making transit, housing, and services affordable and available to New Yorkers."
The shooting prompted a large protest on Wednesday, where police arrested nearly 20 people condemning the actions of the officers. The protesters took their action to the streets of Brownsville, joining in chants against the police department. All but one of the 18 cuffed were given summonses and released.
Another relative at Wednesday's press conference called the NYPD "reckless" in the shooting. New York City Councilmember Chris Banks, who represents Brownsville, called the officers' actions cavalier and callous, saying the incident was "dangerous, irresponsible and careless."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, has said he sees it differently.
"I know people would say that, OK, police should never discharge their guns on a subway system. Idealism is not realism," the mayor said earlier in the week. "Police officers must be trained to make the right decisions. When I looked at that video I saw discipline. I saw desire to deescalate the situation as much as possible."
“I saw the steps those police officers implemented,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Over and over again, trying to reason with the perpetrator. And so some people said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be enforcing fare evasion.’ No. This is not a city where any and everything goes.”
After the footage was released, his office released a statement that was less effusive, noting that the NYPD’s initial review found that shooting took place after Mickles “brandished a dangerous weapon and put officers’ lives at risk.”
“While the formal review continues, and out of respect for that process, I will avoid commenting any further,” Adams said.
