Police officials said they would release body-worn camera footage of a shooting on a subway platform where two bystanders were shot.
Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Police Officials Defend Subway Shooting That Gravely Wounded Bystander

“We are not perfect,” said John Chell, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, as protesters gathered in Union Square.

by · NY Times

New York City police leaders said Wednesday evening that officers had done the best they could when they shot a man wielding a knife, also hitting a fellow officer and two bystanders — including one who suffered a grave head wound.

Police officials said that in the “next couple of days” they would release body-worn camera footage captured by the officers who fired their weapons Sunday at the man they said had the knife, Derell Mickles, 37. He was hit in the stomach and is expected to recover.

Also shot was Gregory Delpeche, a 49-year-old hospital administrator who was on his way to work and in an adjacent car when officers firing struck him in the head. He was in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman was grazed by a bullet, the police said. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is investigating the actions of the officers.

John Chell, the chief of patrol, said that despite those injuries, the officers had acted according to the department’s guidelines, which allow officers to use deadly force when they believe their lives are in danger.

“We are not perfect and every situation is not the same,” he said. “This is a fast-moving, fast-paced and a stressful situation, and we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of the people on that train.”

The shootings were the violent culmination of a confrontation that started after Mr. Mickles twice evaded the fare to get into the Sutter Avenue L train station in Brooklyn, the police said. The officers’ response has set off criticism that the police are being too aggressive when trying to stop fare evaders and has led to demonstrations, including one Wednesday night in Manhattan.

Several hundred people, many wearing masks or carrying signs, gathered at Union Square around 7 p.m. Wednesday before marching down Broadway as dozens of police officers looked on.

On Wednesday, Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said officers had shot into “a crowded and confined area in pursuit of a $2.90 subway fare.”

“This deeply disturbing incident shows why relying on ever more police in subways and harsh new crackdowns for minor offenses won’t bring true community safety,” she said in a statement.

Thomas Donlon, the New York Police Department’s interim commissioner, on Wednesday called the shootings “a tragedy for everyone involved.”

“I want to extend my sincere sympathies to those who are injured,” he said. “And this department understands how traumatic this situation is.”

But he said the shooting had occurred because Mr. Mickles had refused to put down the knife.

The officers ordered Mr. Mickles to drop the knife 38 times, the police said.

Chief Chell said he wanted to rebut “some of the narratives being discussed by people who know better: the narrative that we shot somebody over a $2.90 fare.”

Chief Chell said that the violence had unfolded over a tense, two-and-a-half-minute exchange between the officers and Mr. Mickles, who were about five feet apart.

After the shooting, one of the officers kicked the knife away from Mr. Mickles and in the tumult, a homeless man who was nearby grabbed the weapon and took it with him, the police said. The police said they eventually found the man at a shelter and recovered the knife.

Mr. Mickles faces charges of first-degree attempted assault, theft of services, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the police.

The officer who was shot, Edmund S. Mays, immediately tried to help Mr. Mickles after he was struck and stopped only when he realized he himself was bleeding and losing strength, the police said.

Officer Mays was struck by a bullet under his armpit and has been released from the hospital. He has been asking about the condition of the bystanders who were shot, the officials said.

Police leaders have not gone to visit Mr. Delpeche’s family, the police said.

A friend of Mr. Delpeche, Leighton Lee, told The New York Times that he is barely responsive at Kings County Hospital, where he has been in critical condition. Doctors told Mr. Lee that a bullet went through Mr. Delpeche’s head and that fragments were removed.

Nicholas Liakas, a lawyer representing Mr. Delpeche’s family, has said that his relatives want the Police Department to release body camera footage, because “accountability needs to be met here.”

The police said they were rushing the release of the footage in an effort to be transparent.

In 2022, fare evasion cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the transit system, nearly $700 million in lost revenue.

On Wednesday, the police officials defended aggressively pursuing fare evaders and said that of the 46 guns recovered on the subway this year, half were found on people who had been stopped for fare evasion.

But videos of the shooting’s aftermath horrified commuters and residents alike.

As protesters marched toward Washington Square Park on Wednesday night, many expressed anger at the police and said the city’s public transit system should be free. “We all saw that the N.Y.P.D. committed a mass shooting in our subway the other day,” Jamie Peck, 39, of Brooklyn, said, adding: “We’re here to tell them that we’re not OK with that. We can never let this be normalized no matter how many times they do it.”

Some protesters descended into the subway near the park and jumped the turnstiles. Aboveground, more than 50 police officers, many in riot gear, sought to disperse the crowd as demonstrators taunted them. Several people were arrested.

Earlier on Wednesday, the family of Mr. Delpeche held a news conference in Brownsville alongside lawmakers.

“This is not a new occurrence to the Brownsville community; we have seen police officers exercise depraved indifference to life on a number of occasions,” said Assemblywoman Latrice Walker.

Greg Nougues, 57, a cousin of Mr. Delpeche, described him as a quiet, private person who has worked as an administrator in the emergency room of Woodhull Hospital for more than 20 years.

“I couldn’t believe of all the people to get shot, it would be him,” Mr. Nougues said.

The confrontation began around 3 p.m. Sunday, when the police said they saw Mr. Mickles enter the Sutter Avenue station on the border of East New York and Brownsville without paying.

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

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

Bystander video from the scene shows Mr. Mickles in the doorway of a subway car, lying in a pool of blood, his hands cuffed behind his back. Another clip shows Officer Mays being helped by colleagues.

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

Hurubie Meko, Lola Fadulu and Romaissaa Benzizoune contributed reporting.

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