Mayor Mamdani is urging the Queens District Attorney not to criminally charge a mentally ill Queens man shot and critically wounded for charging with a knife at NYPD cops, saying the schizophrenic suspect “needs mental health care, not criminal prosecution by a District Attorney.”
The Queens District Attorney’s office is currently investigating the epsiode, with preliminary reports indicating prosecuotrs were looking at the possibility of an indictment on a charge of attempted murder. “We do not comment on investigations,” a spokesman for the Queens District Attorney said Tuesday.
In a post on X Monday night, Mamdani said he visited 22-year-old Jabez Chakraborty in the hospital the previous evening and had met with the critically wounded man’s family Saturday.
“No family should experience such pain,” the mayor tweeted, announcing that in a rare move NYPD body-worn camera footage from the Jan. 26 incident would be rush released on Tuesday. “Jabez has lived with schizophrenia for many years.”
Cops shot and critically wounded Chakraborty after responding to a 911 call from the family that he was throwing glass inside his home on Parsons Blvd. in Briarwood.
When the officers responded, Chakraborty charged at them with a large kitchen knife, according to the NYPD. The officers repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon, and tried to isolate him in the home’s living room by closing a glass door between them. But he forced open the door and overwhelmed the officers with the knife extended, police said.
Responding officers didn’t draw their weapons until Chakraborty pulled the kitchen knife, NYPD officials say.
After shooting Chakraborty, the officers provided first aid, and even used a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, NYPD Assistant Chief Chris McIntosh said the day of the shooting.
Medics rushed Chakraborty to an area hospital where he remains in critical but stable condition.
The NYPD released a photo of the knife.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
NYPD officers shot a man who allegedly advanced on them while refusing to drop a knife inside his home on Parsons Blvd. in Queens on Jan. 26. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The activist group Desis Rising Up & Moving released an angry statement from Chakraborty’s family Friday. The family said they were “shocked and outraged by the NYPD’s treatment” of Chakraborty.
“We called for help. We called 911 for an ambulance to provide medical attention for our son, who was in emotional distress. We did not call the police. Instead of medical responders, the NYPD arrived and shot our son multiple times right in front of us,” the family statement said.
NYPD
Police released a photo of the knife recovered at the scene of the police-involved shooting. (NYPD)
“While our son lay shot on the floor, the NYPD acted like ICE, interrogating us on what country we were from, when we last visited, and whether our daughter was born here,” the family claimed in their statement.
Responding to these claims, the NYPD said relatives were told when they called 911 that both EMS and the police were responding to the call.
“When police officers arrived at the location, they asked if they could enter the apartment and the family gave them permission to enter,” a department spokeswoman said.
A neighbor shoveling snow outside his home saw four officers rush into Chakraborty’s home just moments before the shooting.
“The whole incident was over in like 20 seconds. It happened so fast. I was just surprised,” said the neighbor, who wished not to be named. “Within a few seconds, I heard, ‘Drop the knife! Drop the knife!’” THe neighbor then heard multiple shots from police.
After the shooting, prosecutors from the Queens District Attorney’s office showed up and “instructed NYPD officers to take cell phones at the location,” the NYPD said.
“Multiple family members signed voluntary consent forms to turn over their phones,” the department said. “The NYPD reviewed all the body-worn camera footage from the incident, and there is zero evidence that any member of the NYPD asked anyone about immigration status or asked any other inappropriate questions.”
When reached Monday, Chakraborty’s family would not comment on the shooting.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Adams in a tweet called Chakraborty “an individual wielding a knife” and said he was “grateful to the first responders who put themselves on the line each day to keep our communities safe.”
In the family’s statement, they blasted Adams for that response.
“After all this, we saw Mayor Mamdani’s statement applauding the NYPD officers that shot our son, threatened and lied to us, and kept us from seeing our son for over 24 hours,” the family statement read. “Why is the Mayor applauding officers who recklessly almost killed our son in front of us?”
It’s rare for the NYPD to release body-worn camera footage of a police-involved shooting within a week. A city policy in 2020 mandated that the footage be released within 30 days, but the release can be delayed because of criminal investigations.
In Monday’s post, Mamdani brought up his plans for the new Department of Community Safety, which he’s been promoting since he ran for Mayor. Mamdani said Monday the department would be “rooted in prevention, sustained care and crisis response — and one in which officers are not burdened with responding to such crises alone.”
A starting date for the new unit has not been determined.
The city currently has a Behavioral Health Assistance Response Division, also known as the B-HEARD program, in which mental health professionals are paired with city EMTs to respond to calls about non-violent patients in mental and emotional distress. The NYPD is also notified to to respond if the patient starts acting violent.
B-HEARD began as a pilot program in June 2021 and has since expanded to 31 precincts across four boroughs, according to the agency’s website.
The program runs seven days a week, 16 hours a day, but is not yet operating in the 107th Precinct, where Chakraborty lives.
It was announced that by this coming spring, EMS members would be removed from the B-HEARD teams. EMS will only be called in during a medical emergency.
As of June, B-HEARD teams have responded to 35,000 mental health 911 calls. Out of that number, 43% patients were treated at the scene without having to be transported to a hospital.
With Rocco Parascandola, Josephine Stratman and Rebecca White
