The NYPD plans to release body-worn camera footage from Sunday’s chaotic police shooting inside a Brooklyn subway station later this week, in coordination with the district attorney’s office, officials said.
Police officials shared more details about the Brownsville, Brooklyn subway station shooting during a Wednesday evening news conference. They said the violence, captured on body-worn cameras and 15 surveillance cameras at the station and on the trains, began when a man accused of fare evasion later charged at police with a knife.
The incident started when police began pursuing 37-year-old Derell Mickles, who officials said skipped the Sutter Avenue L train station turnstile twice without paying. The shooting, which injured four people, including one police officer, lasted just two minutes and 26 seconds, according to a police official.
Mickles is facing charges of attempted assault, criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of menacing and two counts of fare evasion, according to NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell.
“We will release the body-worn camera in the next couple of days to further be transparent in this incident,” Chell said on Wednesday. “However, again, we must correct the narrative that is out there that we went to that train station and shot someone because they did not pay a $2.90 fare. That is just not true, irresponsible and wrong.”
At around 2:50 p.m. on Sunday, video shows Mickles had jumped the turnstile to enter the station before police asked him to leave, Chell said. Mickles then left the station while officers observed him holding a knife, according to Chell.
About 15 minutes later, Mickles re-entered the station through the emergency exit, Chell said. He was still holding the knife, authorities said.
One officer is heard saying on body-worn camera footage, “Be careful, he has a knife,” according to Chell.
Police told Mickles to drop the knife 38 times, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry.
“We did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of those on the train,” Chell said.
After Mickles entered the station a second time, officers pursued him up three flights of stairs to the platform as he held the knife in his right hand, Chell said. They instructed him to drop the knife, and he refused, according to Chell.
Both officers attempted to subdue Mickles with Tasers, but he pulled multiple prongs from his body, Daughtry said.
At that point, Chell said, “You clearly see Mr. Mickles with the knife extended, chasing the officer.”
Chell added, “As depicted on body-worn camera, Mr. Mickles charged one of the officers and then turned around and the other [officer] was standing there within approximately five feet.”
Both officers then opened fire, hitting Mickles several times, striking a 49-year-old man in the head, police officer Edmund Mays in the chest area and grazing a 26-year-old woman.
Family members said the 49-year-old man, Gregory Delpeche, who was still in critical condition on Wednesday, was riding the train to work on Sunday to his job as an emergency room administrator at Woodhull Hospital. In the days since the shooting, doctors had to remove part of his skull to relieve the swelling in his brain, his family said.
After the shooting, the NYPD said they recovered Mickles’ knife from the scene and posted a photo of it on social media. Later, officials revised their statement, saying someone had taken the knife from the scene.
Officials said once Mickles was shot, officers kicked the knife away and an unknown man picked it up and left the station with it.
At Wednesday’s news conference, police officials said they detained the man who left with the knife, but prosecutors declined to charge him. The man lives in a homeless shelter, police said.
“This is a tragedy for everyone involved,” newly appointed Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlon said at the news conference. “I want to extend my sincere sympathies to those who were injured.”
Asked by a reporter why officers could not successfully Tase Mickles, Daughtry said the NYPD is working with Taser manufacturer Axon to roll out a new, higher-voltage model. In recent years, NYPD Tasers have failed roughly 40% of the time, Gothamist reported this week.
Police have seized 47 illegal guns in the city’s transit system so far this year, according to NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper. Officers seized about half of those guns during fare evasion stops, he said.
Officers have also seized nearly 1,600 knives so far this year, according to Kemper. About 500 of those knives were seized during fare evasion stops.