The ongoing controversy surrounding the police shooting of a mentalliy ill Queens schizophrenic man who charged at cops with a knife ratcheted up a notch Wednesday with the release of 911 audio the NYPD says makes clear police were going to be responding to the episode.
The family of Jabez Chakraborty has sharply criticized the police response, saying they were looking for medical help, not law enforcement, when they called 911. The department’s release of the call Wedensday sparked additional concerns, the family said.
“Today we heard the release of the 911 call which indicates a member of the Chakraborty family calling 911 seeking medical attention for Jabez, who was experiencing emotional distress,” the family said in a statement. “The family expected medical support to arrive, Instead, the NYPD showed up.”
But an NYPD spokesman noted that the 911 audio proves that family knew police were on their way.
The caller had requested “involuntary transportation,” an ambulance, and added that when police previously went to the family’s home “an officer said we should have called for an ambulance.”
Nonetheless, the dispatcher said, even a request for an ambulance would also involve a police response.
Informations about the prior call wwas not immediately available.
Chakraborty, 22, was shot in his family’s Briarwood home last Monday after lunging at police with a knife, video of the episode shows.
Chakraborty remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, with Mayor Mamdani making headlines for visiting Chakraborty and urging Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz not to file criminal charges against him, saying the NYPD body-worn camera footage shows he “needs mental health care, not criminal prosecution.”
Mamdani’s comments have not made clear whether he was a criticizing the police response that day, or delivering a broader indictment of the way mental health emergencies are handled. The mayor is pressing for the creation of a new Department of Community Safety to deal more effectively with the mentally ill.Mamdani on Wednesday addressed the shooting.
“The North Star for that department is safety — safety for the affected individual, for the family, for the police officers, for any responding city personnel,” he said Wednesday. “And so, right now, what we are doing is exploring every potential avenue to create the Department of Community Safety, that includes supporting legislative efforts like that of Councilmember Restler but it does not limit itself to that either.”
On Tuesday, the NYPD released the body-cam footage, which shows Chakraborty grabbing a knife in the kitchen and moving straight toward Officer Tyree White, with a relative trying in vain to hold Chakraborty back as she shouted “Baba! Baba, no! no!.”
But he brushed her aside and advanced toward the two officers, the footage shows.
White can be seen retreating into a vestibule and slamming shut a glass-paned door while ordering Chakraborty to drop the weapon.
“Put the knife down! Put the knife down!” White can be heard shouting in the video.
Despite the officer’s orders, Chakraborty turned the door handle, opened the door and muscled his way through as White fired four shots.
The footage is obscured by White’s arms as he opens fire.
