Protests over NY subway fare-evasion shooting lead to arrests

[bnew]

Protests erupt after four hurt in New York subway shooting

Officers fired during a clash with a man who pulled a knife after being stopped for fare evasion, police say.

www.bbc.com

Protests over NY subway fare-evasion shooting lead to arrests​

7 hours ago

Graeme Baker

BBC News, Washington

A train crosses Sutter Avenue in Brooklyn, New York

Protesters in New York have demanded accountability after police fired at a suspected fare-evader in a busy subway station, hitting a bystander in the head.

The man, Gregory Delpeche, remains in the hospital in critical condition and has undergone cranial surgery, according to US media.

Police said two officers shot at the suspected fare-evader on Sunday after he refused to comply with orders, muttered threats and drew a knife.

A second bystander, another officer and the suspect also were injured.

New York authorities have made reducing crime on the subway and buses a top priority following a series of violent attacks, robberies and murders. A crackdown on fare evasion is part of that push.

But critics have questioned how the pursuit of a minor offender escalated into the use of lethal force in a crowded space.

Jennvine Wong, of the Legal Aid Society Cop Accountability Project, told The New York Times that police had endangered lives after choosing "in an enclosed space ... to use disproportionate force".

At a Tuesday protest that began outside the Sutter Avenue L Station in Brooklyn, where the shooting incident occurred, police made 18 arrests as community members spoke out and gave out swipes for subway rides.

"Two dollars and 90 cents is not [worth] a bullet shot to the head," one protester told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

Mr Delpeche, 49, was in a different car from the suspected fare-evader, on the way to the job he has held at a local hospital for more than 20 years.

Relatives told US media the wound to his head has left him with possible brain damage. He is sedated and breathing through a tube after undergoing surgery to reduce brain swelling, they added.

Tom Donlon, the city's interim police commissioner, has ordered a full investigation.

But he told reporters: "Make no mistake, the events that occurred... were the results of an armed perpetrator".

New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former officer, also defended the officers' response.

"He was not shot for fare evasion. He was shot because he had a knife and he went after the police officers," he said on Tuesday.

"I thought those officers responded accordingly."

The officers involved have not been named but have reportedly been assigned to desk duty pending an investigation.

In a press conference, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said that two officers had seen a man - later identified as Derrell Mickles - go through barriers without paying.

Mr Maddrey said body camera footage showed the suspect threatening to "kill" the officers if they followed him, before confronting them with a knife.

The footage shows a train pull into the station as the confrontation escalates. The officers fired Tasers at the man - to no effect - as he attempted to board the train, before he jumped back to the platform.

"At one point, he is advancing on one of the officers with his knife," Mr Maddrey said. "The officer stands back, he draws his weapon, and both officers at this point fire."

Two bystanders, a police officer and the suspect were hit.

Mr Maddrey said that the officer realised he had been shot in the armpit but continued to perform "life-saving measures" on the suspect. Both officers then realised that two bystanders had also been hit by gunfire. Two other officers then arrived and aided the wounded.

Officials said that the suspect had a record of 20 previous arrests and a significant history of mental illness.

Janno Liever, the chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that the incident "started because somebody wanted to come to the transit system with a weapon, somebody who... had a history of crime and a history of violence and even gun charges".

The police said on Sunday that a knife had been recovered and posted a picture on social media. The next day, however, it posted another message saying the knife had been taken from the crime scene by an unidentified man.

Officers recovered a different knife from the scene, thinking it was the one that the suspect had been carrying, according to the Gothamist.

An NYPD spokesman told the news website that the knife they picked up must have been left behind by another subway rider.

City authorities have attempted to expand the police presence on its transport system following a surge in crime. All stations on the city's system have security cameras and pilot schemes are being run to scan passengers for weapons.

The MTA last year announced a crackdown on fare evasion, backed by enforcement by police. Officials say that aggressive enforcement can help in catching criminals and removing weapons from New York's trains.

But the problem continues to grow, with NYPD statistics showing 2,227 arrests and more than 30,000 summonses in the second quarter of this year - around double that of the same period five years ago.
New York City
United States

 

[bnew]

there are people who still argue firearms should be much more accessible to NYC residents.

the population density ensures that bystanders will be hit regularly because of the line of sight is overlapping with people damn near everywhere.

 

[concise]

It's nuts, somebody in the next car over got shot in the head by a stray bullet. Shot his own partner also.


And it's an above ground train, somebody could have been in the shower or in the living room getting hit by a bullet on a moving train.

 

[BlazedWun]

trump wants to give 'em immunity

 

[feelosofer]

That was stupid and reckless by the police officers and now an innocent person may have permanent brain damage.

 

[bnew]

That was stupid and reckless by the police officers and now an innocent person may have permanent brain damage.

this would be a terrorism charge for someone who didn't have a badge.

 

[chineebai]

join the nypd you get to shoot at innocent bystanders and your own partner!! Great benefits at the cost of the taxpayers.

 

[bnew]

The Police Called. He Checked the News, and His ‘Heart Dropped.’

Gregory Delpeche, a bystander, is in critical condition after being shot by a police officer at a Brooklyn subway station. His friend of decades says it never should have happened.

www.nytimes.com

The Police Called. He Checked the News, and His ‘Heart Dropped.’​

Gregory Delpeche, a bystander, is in critical condition after being shot by a police officer at a Brooklyn subway station. His friend of decades says it never should have happened.

Tap the Play button at the top of any article to hear it read aloud.

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Gregory Delpeche, 49, was one of four people shot by police officers on Sunday afternoon during a confrontation between officers and a knife-wielding man who they believed had not paid his fare.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

By Hurubie Meko and Wesley Parnell

Sept. 18, 2024

On Sunday night Leighton Lee received a strange call from a police officer asking him cryptic questions about his best friend: What was he like? Where would he be going on the subway on a Sunday afternoon?

Mr. Lee wanted to know why he was being asked so many questions about his friend, Gregory Delpeche. The officer told him Mr. Delpeche was part of “an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Worried, Mr. Lee checked the news and saw there had been a shooting in Brooklyn, on the subway line Mr. Delpeche took to his job at Woodhull Hospital. As videos of the scene poured in on social media, Mr. Lee recognized his friend of decades lying on the ground, wounded.

“I knew that was him, and my heart dropped,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “He was the one that got shot in the head.”

Mr. Delpeche, 49, was one of two bystanders shot by police officers on Sunday afternoon during a confrontation at the Sutter Avenue subway station between officers and a knife-wielding man who they believed had not paid his fare.

The man who the police said threatened them with a knife, later identified as Derell Mickles, 37, was shot in the stomach. A 26-year-old female bystander was grazed by a bullet and was in stable condition as of Monday. One of the officers was struck by a bullet under his armpit and has been released from the hospital.

Now, Mr. Lee said his friend is barely responsive in Kings County Hospital, where he is in critical condition. Doctors told him that a bullet went through Mr. Delpeche’s head and that fragments were removed. “I’m not sure he can hear me; he did put his thumbs up once,” Mr. Lee said.

The police should not have fired, he said. “It was very reckless of them to be shooting in a crowded train station,” when “they knew a stray bullet could hit someone,” Mr. Lee said. “It happened to be my childhood friend of 30 or 40 years.”

The shooting at the Sutter Avenue subway station was “reckless,” said Leighton Lee, a friend of one of the bystanders who was wounded.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Nicholas Liakas, a lawyer representing Mr. Delpeche’s family, said on Tuesday night that the man’s relatives were hoping that the Police Department would voluntarily release body camera footage of what happened on Sunday, because they believe “something needs to be done and accountability needs to be met here.”

Mr. Liakas called the police officers’ actions “overaggressive” and said it was “unacceptable that an innocent bystander is now going to be dealing with a lifetime of recovery and issues.”

The melee in the subway on Sunday comes amid a push by Mayor Eric Adams’s administration to reduce crime in New York City’s transit system. Since taking office, Mr. Adams has flooded the system with police officers, introduced gun-detecting scanners inside subway stations and cracked down on fare evasion. Crime in the subway declined by about seven percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to city data.

In 2022, fare evasion cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the transit system, nearly $700 million in lost revenue. Officials have said an aggressive approach to fare enforcement can also keep weapons out of the system and stop criminals from committing serious offenses.

But after the shootings on Sunday, some critics expressed concerns about the Police Department’s tactics.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Adams pushed back, saying that Mr. Mickles was “not shot for fare evasion” and that “he was shot because he had a knife.”

Mr. Adams also said the officers “should be commended for how they really showed a great level of restraint.”

“And it’s just unfortunate that innocent people were shot because of that,” he said.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams pushed back on criticism that the police officers who opened fire at a subway station had behaved inappropriately.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

In a statement on Wednesday, Patrick Hendry, president of the police officers’ union, said Mr. Mickles’s actions had “forced our police officers to make difficult, split-second decisions in order to stop a potentially deadly threat.”

“He is solely responsible for all of the harm caused in this case,” Mr. Hendry said.

The confrontation that led to the shootings began around 3 p.m. on Sunday, when the police said they saw Mr. Mickles enter the L train station on the border of East New York and Brownsville without paying.

The officers followed Mr. Mickles, Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at a news conference on Sunday night, and “became aware” that he had a knife in his pocket.

When a Manhattan-bound L train entered the station, Mr. Mickles boarded the train and the officers followed him and fired Tasers at him, Chief Maddrey said. The Tasers did not subdue Mr. Mickles; he came at one of the officers with the knife, the chief said, and both officers fired at him.

Bystander video shows a chaotic aftermath. Mr. Mickles can be seen in the doorway of a subway car, lying in a pool of blood, his hands cuffed behind his back. Another clip shows the wounded officer being helped by colleagues.

Another wounded person can be seen on the floor at the far end of an adjacent car.

Mr. Mickles remains in critical condition at Kings County Hospital. He faces charges of first-degree attempted assault, theft of services, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the police.

On Tuesday evening, around 7 p.m., more than 200 people massed outside the Sutter Avenue station to protest the shootings. About an hour later, police officers arrived, and the crowd moved to outside the 73rd Precinct.

Adiagha Faizah, an artist who joined the protesters as they marched past her home, said police use of force was more common in Brownsville than in other parts of the city. “This keeps happening again and again,” she said. “It typically happens in our community. They don’t police Williamsburg like this; they don’t police Dumbo or Park Slope.”

Demonstrators gathered at the Sutter Avenue subway station on Tuesday evening and marched to the 73rd Precinct to protest the shootings.Credit...Jonah Markowitz for The New York Times

Shortly after, the police deployed mace, and the crowd began to disperse. As some demonstrators lingered, officers began making arrests.

On Wednesday, members of Mr. Delpeche’s family were accompanied by lawmakers and lawyers at a news conference in Brownsville, where they again called for the release of body camera footage and a full investigation.

Keith White, another lawyer representing the family, said they were also asking for the mayor to contact the family, which they said he had not yet done.

Chris Banks, a Brooklyn councilman whose district includes Brownsville, said that the officers’ actions were “irresponsible and careless.”

Image

Catherine Jeudy and Greg Nouges, cousins of the victims, came to a news conference Wednesday to demand accountability.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
“We can’t have this cowboy mentality when it comes to policing or protecting our community,” Mr. Banks said.

At the news conference, Greg Nougues, Mr. Delpeche’s cousin, described him as hardworking and private.

Mr. Delpeche had been employed at Woodhull for 20 years and “lived at his job,” according to Mr. Lee.

“All that he did,” he said, “was work and go to the gym.”

If Mr. Delpeche could speak about what happened to him, he would say, “Of all the people, me,” Mr. Lee said.

“He’d be like, ‘my luck,’” Mr. Lee said. “He would always say that: ‘My luck.’”

Lola Fadulu and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York region. More about Hurubie Meko

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 19, 2024, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: Bystander Friend Calls Police Actions ‘Reckless’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe