Good pal also killed by police
THEY WERE TWO best friends who suffered the same terrible fate — shot dead by police on the streets of Brooklyn. Saheed Vassell (left) slid into a downward spiral after the cop killing of his pal Ortanzso (Marlon) Bovell (right) in 2008, relatives and friends confirmed Saturday. “Seriously that was the last moment in time I remember him happy,” Bovell’s sister Leesh told the Daily News, referring to Vassell. “He wasn’t an angry person. He was depressed mentally. They were friends forever. He hasn’t been the same since Marlon died.” Vassell was fatally shot on Utica Ave. on Wednesday while pointing an iron pipe that resembled a gun at officers responding to a call of a man threatening people with a firearm. Ten years earlier and less than a mile away, his friend Bovell was killed by cops while fleeing in a stolen car. The shooting was set in motion when a team of officers with the Brooklyn South auto larceny squad spotted Bovell, 25, breaking into a 2004 Mustang GT on Remsen Ave. in East Flatbush. When Bovell sped away, he clipped NYPD Inspector John Chell who was clutching his firearm. As Chell fell, his gun went off. The bullet went through a window and hit Bovell in the back, cops and witnesses said at the time. The police said the gun went off accidentally. Chell dodged charges after investigations by the NYPD and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. But a civil court jury awarded $2.5 million to Bovell’s family, ruling that Chell “intentionally discharged” his gun. At a community meeting Saturday, City Councilwoman Alicka Samuel (D-Crown Heights) said the shooting of his friend triggered Vassell’s mental health issues. “Saheed’s mental illness started at the hands of police officers shooting an unarmed black man and Saheed’s life ended by the shooting of a police officer and he was an unarmed black man,” Samuel said.