New York: tensions after the death of an African-American shot by police

New York police officers on Wednesday in Brooklyn shot dead an African-American who pointed to a pipe they mistook for a weapon, sparking tensions in the neighborhood amid still heated controversy over police violence.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. local time in Crown Heights, a predominantly black neighborhood in the heart of Brooklyn.

A police official, Terence Monahan, said Wednesday evening during a press briefing that his men had intervened after receiving “three different calls” indicating “a man with a gun pointed at passers-by”.

He claimed that surveillance cameras “corroborated” this description of the facts.

When the police arrived at the scene, the man allegedly took “a shooting posture, both hands on the object pointed at the police,” he added. Four police officers then fired at him, releasing ten bullets and killing the man, identified as Saheed Vassell, 34, by the Daily News.

It was later found that the object was not a weapon, but “a pipe with some kind of button,” admitted Mr. Monahan.

Shortly after the shooting, dozens of people gathered at the scene, in a sometimes tense face-to-face with the deployed police. Many were shouting and denouncing the behavior of the police, according to images broadcast live on Facebook.

According to several local media, the victim was a regular in the neighborhood, presenting mental disorders, but not violent.

This incident, on the day of the 50^e anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, comes as protests have followed one another in recent days in Sacramento, California, to denounce the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed young black man shot dead by police on March 18.

Several American cities have flared up in recent years after police blunders of which blacks were the first victims.

In October 2016, the New York police caused a stir after they shot a woman with mental disorders in her apartment in the Bronx. The police officer involved had been charged, before being acquitted after a trial last February.