The man, who presented with mental disorders, assumed a “shooting posture” while pointing a metal tube towards the police officers. Dozens of people gathered at the scene in a tense face-to-face with the police.
He was known in Crown Heights for his mental disorder, but not for acts of violence. A black man was shot dead Wednesday night by a police patrol intervening in this popular neighborhood of Brooklyn, following “three different calls” reporting an individual in possession of a gun. When they arrived there, he pointed a metal tube the size of a handgun in their direction while assuming a “shooting posture”, according to the testimony of the police officers. Four officers – one in uniform and three in civilian clothes – then fired ten shots at the man, whom they fatally injured.
According to New York Daily News , the man was called Saheed Vassell and was 34 years old. Of Jamaican origin, he was a welder, the father of a teenager. His father, Eric Vassell, told the newspaper that he suffered from bipolar disorder but refused to be treated. “He hadn’t been taking his meds for years,” he said.
“They didn’t say put your hands up, nothing at all”
This shooting caused a strong commotion in the district where several dozen people came to protest against what they see as a new police blunder with regard to a black man. On a sign attached to the fence in front of Saheed Vassell’s building, it read: “Without consequences, the killings by the police will continue”. On the back was inscribed: “Black lives matter”, a reference to the protest movement against police violence against blacks.
During a press briefing, the head of the NYPD department showed an image taken from a surveillance camera showing the silhouette of the suspect in a firing position. But the investigation must determine whether the police issued a warning to the suspect before firing. Witnesses said the officers arrived in an unmarked car and opened fire without warning. “They emerged from the car. (…) They did not say put your hands in the air, nothing at all ”, affirms a witness to the New york Daily News. Information not confirmed by the NYPD.
The incident took place on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King. Across the country, on the west coast, demonstrations have been held for several days to protest against another comparable fact. On March 18, an unarmed young black man was shot dead by police in Sacramento, California.
In recent years, several American cities have gone up in flames 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.
– .
