Attorney General Letitia James has opened an investigation into the deadly Queens police shooting of a 61-year-old, knife-wielding man undergoing a mental health crisis on a public sidewalk, her office announced Tuesday.
Police brass said that they attempted to de-escalate the shooting that happened at around 6:20 a.m. along Astoria’s 31st Street and 30th Avenue but “were forced to defend ourselves.” Responding officers from the 114th Precinct opened fire on the man as he approached them with a 14-inch knife in hand following a 56-second standoff, killing him.
In the hours following the incident, Queens City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas pushed back on the response stating: “This is not public safety.”
“Our neighbor with a reported history of mental illness was shot to death by the police because the NYPD used lethal force after being unable to de-escalate a 56-second interaction with a 61-year old man holding a knife,” part of their joint statement read. “As we await more details, here are things we know: there are glaring gaps in our city’s mental health infrastructure. There are glaring gaps in our city’s emergency response infrastructure, particularly as it relates to New Yorkers with mental illness.”
Now, James’s Office of Special Investigation is probing the incident, her office announced over 24 hours later.
“The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) has opened an investigation into the death of a civilian who died on April 14, 2025 following an encounter with members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in Queens,” the Attorney General‘s office said.
Inquiries like these are common practice following shootings such as these and do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, NYPD Chief of Department John Chell charged on the day of the shooting that officers attempted to resolve things non-lethally by commanding him to drop the knife before using tasers that ultimately failed to subdue him.
“They gave orders to drop the knife. They deployed their Tasers, multiple Tasers, that were ineffective at this point,” Chell said.
Video captured on Citizen App showed a group of cops surrounding the suspect, performing CPR before he was whisked by EMS to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
