NYPD SHOOT RAGE IN B’KLYN
Man killed holding pipe cops mistook for gun He was disturbed, but harmless: angry friends Victim’s son: This is what society has come to
Police shot and killed Saheed Vassell (left), who family said suffered from mental illness. Cops claim he took shooting stance (right) while holding pipe (above) at Brooklyn streetcorner.
It wasn’t a birthday we were commemorating. Let’s start out there.
And anyone calling the events remembering the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death “celebrations” probably meant well, but they were using the wrong word.
What we witnessed or participated in Wednesday were memorial services recognizing one of the most violent acts in American history, the brutal assassination of a peaceful patriot whose death showed us then and reminds now of the work that lies ahead.
Anyone with doubts need look no further than Brooklyn, where we can now add a pipe with a knob to the list of items that shoot-first cops have mistaken for a gun.
Let us not be so surprised that cops could shoot to death another black man without a gun on the same day — in the same hour — that we were paying tribute to the man, the very soul who personified nonviolence.
Let us not be shocked that exactly 50 years to the day that King was murdered while leading a national fight against oppression and injustice, including police misconduct and brutality, that we have to yet again remind Brooklyn and the world that Black Lives Matter.
Instead, let us be angry. Instead, let us be outraged. Instead, let us be vigilant.
Let us fight against injustice with the spirit of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity representative who spoke Wednesday at a service at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, just feet from where King died.
“We’ll fight until hell freezes over,” the speaker said, “and then we’ll fight on the ice.”
NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a news conference that four officers responding to 911 calls fired 10 shots at the victim, who was described by residents in the Crown Heights neighborhood as emotionally disturbed.
“This was not an emotionally disturbed call,” Monahan said. “This was a call of a man pointing what 911 callers and people felt was a gun at people on the street. When we encounter him, he turns with what appears to be a gun. We have to stay straight on the facts of this incident.”
What Monahan did not tell reporters, at least not yet, was the racial makeup of the officers who fired the fatal shots.
Even if he had shared that detail, I’m not sure how much that would matter. Because it is not the racial makeup of the cop that makes the police shooting of a black man without a gun a racial incident.
What makes these countless deadly encounters racial incidents is that the victims are almost never white.
Not Freddie Gray. Not Sandra Bland. Not Stephon Clark. Not Alton Sterling. Not Rekia Boyd. Not Tamir Rice, or any of the people on the cover of Wednesday’s Daily News featuring King asking “What would he think?”
“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,” King said in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
We understand that cops make split-second decisions.
Still, it boggles the mind that mass murderers like Dylann Roof, who shot and killed nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, or Nikolas Cruz who murdered 17 people in a Florida school rampage in February can be arrested without a scratch, yet a man who pointed a pipe on a streetcorner is as dead as Sean Bell.
How much has changed since King’s death? It’s too soon to tell.
See you in another 50 years. A BIPOLAR Brooklyn man waving a metal object at passersby was fatally shot by police Wednesday when cops responding to 911 calls for a man with a gun said he “took a two-handed shooting stance” and pointed at them.
The man, identified by family members as Saheed Vassell, 34, was a Jamaica-born welder and the father of a teenage boy.
Police said they were responding to three emergency calls that came in around 4:40 p.m. about a black man wearing a brown jacket waving what people thought was a silver gun on the corner of Utica Ave. and Montgomery St., NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a press conference.
When the officers got to the street corner, Vassell turned and faced them, with the object aimed in their direction, Monahan said.
“The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers,” the chief said, holding up a surveillance photo of a blurry figure standing next to a bodega ice machine with his arms outstretched.
Four officers — one in uniform, three in plainclothes — fired 10 shots, striking Vassell multiple times at about 4:45 p.m., Monahan said.
Police can be heard on an emergency radio saying they were on scene at about 4:42 p.m., and 27 seconds later, officers were calling for an ambulance. The NYPD did not give an explanation when asked about that timeline.
No firearm was found at the scene — and police said Vassell had been holding a metal pipe with a knob on the end.
Jaccbot Hinds, 40, who witnessed the shooting, said officers jumped out of their unmarked police car and fired without warning.
“They just hopped out of the car. It’s almost like they did a hit. They didn’t say ‘please.’ They didn’t say ‘put your hands up,’ nothing,” Hinds said.
The NYPD refused to say if the responding officers warned Vassell before firing.
Vassell was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died.
None of the officers wore body cameras, Monahan said.
Bereft family members fought with security at Kings County Hospital after hospital staff refused to let them see Vassell’s body.
His 15-year-old son, Tyshawn, described him as a caring father who looked after him.
We still must shout out that Black Lives Matter
“He’s always been there for me no matter what,” Tyshawn said. “He’d always come check up on me, ask me if I’m good.”
He struggled to find the reason for the confrontation with police.
“He cared for everybody. If you saw him, he’d always be in a laughing mood. You would never catch him down,” Tyshawn said.
The shattered teen said he was still trying to process the news.
“This is what our society has come to,” he said.
Eric Vassell, 63, the slain man’s father, said that his son, who went to Wingate High School, struggled with bipolar disorder, but refused treatment.
“He hasn’t taken his medication for years,” the father said.
The elder Vassell said he used to fret about Saheed.
“We were always worried for him. We would say should anything happen to him, we just have to do what we can do,” he said. He, too, struggled for answers Wednesday night. “Why shoot to kill?” he said. “Are you so afraid that you have to take his life.” Witnesses said the gunfire threw the afternoon into chaos. “I heard all these shots, I thought it was firecrackers at first. I turned around and you just see the cops standing over the guy,” witness Chris J. said. “First it was one, then it was nonstop after that.” The witness, who was sitting in a salon across the street, said a plainclothes officer handcuffed Vassell as he lay motionless on the sidewalk. “Blood was everywhere,” Chris said. “They put him on his back and they tried to compress his chest but he was gone.” One bullet shattered a window at Chucky Fresh Market at 414 Utica Ave. “There were gunshots, and I just ducked,” said a clerk who declined to identify himself. “A minute later, cops were everywhere.”
After the shooting, an angry crowd formed at the edge of the police tape shouting at police and pointing out the officers they believed to be responsible.
“The whole community came outside,” he added. “People were going crazy. It was a nightmare out there.”
Vassell was known as a quirky neighborhood character with some mental health issues. His family said that he struggled with alcohol, but the community knew he meant no harm.
Andre Wilson, 38, who’s known Vassell for 20 years, said he was odd but harmless.
“All he did was just walk around the neighborhood,” Wilson said. “He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone.”
Wilson said he was shocked that it would come to this.
“The officers from the neighborhood, they know him. He has no issue with violence ... This shouldn’t have happened at all.”
Vassell’s ex-partner, Sherlan Smith, 36, mother to Tyshawn, said she parted with Vassell on good terms,
“He was a good father. He wasn’t a bad person. No matter how they want to spin it, he wasn’t a bad person,” Smith said. “Too many black people are dying at hands of police officers and it’s about time something be done.”
On the fence outside Vassell’s building a sign read, “Without Consequences Police Murders Will Continue.” On the back it said, “Black Lives Matter”.
Smith also noted the bleak symbolism of Vassell getting shot on April 4.
“On the anniversary of the man who stood up for black people ... you’re going take a black man down with nine bullets,” Smith said.
The shooting comes as the nation paused to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King.