The NYPD released Friday afternoon the body camera footage from the Brooklyn police-involved shooting almost one week after the incident left an officer wounded and a commuter suffering brain damage.
The release of the dramatic video comes amidst citywide outrage over the shooting that many advocates and city officials say should not have happened while police brass charge the officers involved did everything they could to end the confrontation without deadly force.
The NYPD stitched together video to their YouTube account on Sept. 20 that shows a mixture of surveillance video and body cam footage from both officers involved in the altercation.
“You will see relevant video footage and other available evidence that will allow you to gain a better understanding of the events that led up to the incident and what occurred during the incident based on the facts that we know at this time,” Assistant Commissioner, Carlos Nieves said at the beginning of the video. “New York State law and NYPD policy gives police officers the authority to use reasonable force under appropriate circumstances.”
The video shows 37-year-old Derell Mickles walk through an open gate at the Sutter Avenue station on the L line on Sept. 15. Transit police officer Wong and Police Officer Mays appear to immediately follow Mickles who yells at the cops to get away from him. The pair trailed him onto an arriving train and commanded him to drop a knife, according to the released video.
Both officers deploy their tasers that do not appear to affect Mickles before he leaves the train and briefly charges at officer Mays, resulting in both cops unleashing a barrage of shots. During the chaos, two civilians were struck by gunfire, including 49-year-old Gregory Delpeche who is now with brain damaged.
While Mayor Eric Adams spent the week defending the officers’ actions, Hizzoner declined to go quite as far upon the video’s release.
“Our condolences go out to the innocent bystanders involved in this incident and their families, and like all New Yorkers, we’re praying for their immediate recovery. No one wants to see innocent people get hurt because anytime a New Yorker is injured during a crime, we all, collectively, share the profound pain,” part of the statement read. “While this matter remains under investigation, the NYPD’s initial review found that this shooting took place after the suspect involved 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.”
On Wednesday police brass charged that the incident was not about fare evasion but instead about a man holding a deadly weapon. However, the incident has cast new scrutiny of subway policing and sparked protests that have seen mass fare evasion.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also released a statement in the hours following the bodycam release, in which he made a scathing rebuke of the incident, going as far as to say that no shot needed or should have been fired.
“This horrifying video, which took a week to release, was years of failure in the making. Years of inadequate resources for mental health support. Years of building systems and responses that criminalize issues of poverty and mental health. Years of flooding the subway with wave after wave of law enforcement, and setting their focus on fare evasion,” part of the statement read. “Four people shot, one a fellow officer, one an innocent bystander who may never recover. Not a single shot needed to be fired at the moment officers fired into a train with people in it.”
This story was updated at 8:15 p.m.
