Mayor Eric Adams continued Wednesday to defend the officers’ actions in Sunday’s police-involved subway shooting in Brooklyn that left one officer wounded, a bystander with a brain injury, and a city wondering why it happened.
The Sept. 15 Brownsville subway shooting involved 37-year-old Derell Mickles, who police said charged at two officers while brandishing a knife as the cops sought to stop him after he entered the Sutter Avenue station on the L line without paying.
Moments later, the officers — who could not subdue the man with Tasers that failed when activated — opened fire on Mickles, striking him as well as two bystanders at the station and one of the officers involved in the shooting itself.
Even though two civilians were injured in the reckless shooting — including one who suffered a brain injury, according to the New York Daily News — Mayor Adams refused to denounce the decision to open fire when questioned about the incident at an unrelated event on Sept. 18.
“I know people would say that police officers should never discharge their guns on the subway system. Idealism is not realism. Policing is a very complicated series of events that unfold at a pace that is unimaginable,” Adams said.
The mayor’s remarks came amidst unrest over the incident.
On Tuesday night, protesters gathered outside of the Sutter Avenue station and decried the NYPD’s efforts to crack down on fare evasion. The NYPD has previously said its efforts have helped stop serious criminals from causing harm, while increasing safety in the subways and prevent a loss of revenue for the MTA.
But the Sept. 17 demonstration, however, ended in mayhem as cops clashed with fuming New Yorkers, making several arrests in the process.
VOCAL-NY, a criminal justice and civil rights organization, released a statement Wednesday that called the officers’ actions irresponsible.
“What the police did was a reckless disregard for human life,” said D’Juan Collins, a leader with VOCAL-NY’s Civil Rights Union. “They violate people’s rights because they feel like they’re above the law specifically because of qualified immunity. If they were held responsible for their actions they wouldn’t be endangering people. They feel like they can justify their misconduct by saying that the other person had ‘a knife.’ That doesn’t justify violating people’s rights and putting people in danger.”
Despite the criticism, Mayor Adams said Wednesday that he believed the cops acted professionally after watching surveillance video from the shooting, though he lamented the harm caused to bystanders.
“Our hearts bleeds when an innocent person is a victim of something like this, but police officers must be trained to make the right decisions,” the mayor said. “And when I looked at that video, I saw discipline. I saw a desire to deescalate the situation as much as possible.”
When asked Wednesday if he believes the NYPD should change its procedure for policing the subways, the mayor said his team will conduct an analysis.
Mayor Adams, a former police officer himself, sought to explain the stress a police officer faces in a potentially life-threatening situation, saying he had been there before.
“I remember as a young rookie cop wrestling with someone on a packed subway train that had a knife trying to stab a woman,” Adams said. “When you are in that situation, your natural adrenaline is running. You are trying to make the best choices. You heard in the video, they’re telling the people to move over, to move out of the way. No one wants an innocent person hurt.”
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