The Brooklyn hospital brouhaha involving NYPD officers denied immediate entry to help a fellow officer grappling with a mentally ill prisoner was more tense than originally portrayed, with a hospital police lieutenant threatened with a Taser, according to sources familiar with the incident.
And following a previously scheduled meeting Tuesday afternoon between Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Gregory Floyd, who heads the union that represents city hospital police officers, both sides pledged to improve their working relationship.
“It was a productive meeting,” said Deputy Commissioner Delaney Kempner, the NYPD’s top spokesperson.
The Daily News reported Monday that Kadeem Alfred, a Kings County Hospital security guard, and Lt. Michael Kee, a member of the Health and Hospitals Corp. police force, were arrested for obstructing governmental administration for their role in a pre-dawn incident.
The NYPD said a 71st Precinct officer was in the psychiatric ward shortly before 4:30 a.m. and was having trouble with a handcuffed prisoner who was trying to lock himself in a bathroom.
The officer asked hospital personnel for help, but was told to ask his own agency, an NYPD source said.
At that point, the officer called in a 10-85 — police jargon for assistance needed.
At least four fellow NYPD officers showed up and spent up to four minutes trying to convince security guard Alfred that their colleague needed help, with Alfred insisting that he needed a supervisor’s approval before letting them into the locked ward, the NYPD said.
The NYPD officers were also told they needed to check their guns and bullets, which is psychiatric ward policy — absent life-threatening circumstances — according to hospital police sources. The NYPD disputes that and said its officers voluntarily checked in their guns.
The disagreement peaked when hospital police supervisors showed up at the scene.
The NYPD officers were finally let into the ward.
Then, when the cops moved to arrest Alfred, tensions escalated again, with Lt. Kee and a hospital police captain getting involved.
Both were shoved, hospital police sources said, with NYPD Sgt. Mohsin Akhtar drawing his Taser and threatening to fire it at Kee, hospital police sources said.
Akhtar didn’t fire the Taser, however, and Kee was then arrested for trying to prevent Alfred from being arrested, the NYPD said. Both Kee and Alfred were issued desk appearance tickets, then released.
Meanwhile, the officer who had called for assistance had succeeded in gaining control of the prisoner by the time his colleagues arrived at his side.
An NYPD source said the real concern is that the officer could have been seriously hurt during the delay.
“A 10-85 can go to a 10-13 in seconds,” the source said, the latter referring to the police radio code for “officer down” or “officer shot.” “If I hear a 10-85, I’m going — I’m not checking my guns.”
Floyd before meeting with Tisch said it was clear hospital police officers “did their jobs and NYPD officers involved instead improperly arrested a hospital officer.”
On Wednesday, Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for the union, said its concerns were raised with Tisch.
“We hope we can come up with a system where nothing like this happens again,” he said.
