Dad: Justice for slain son
The dad of a 34-year-old bipolar man shot to death by police in Brooklyn while waving a silver pipe that resembled a gun saw new video footage of the incident Tuesday in a meeting with the state attorney general’s office.
Eric Vassell, victim Saheed Vassell’s father, met with staffers from the New York attorney general’s office to be updated on the status of the investigation into his son’s April 4 killing in Crown Heights.
Afterward, Vassell decried his son’s death and demanded Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill take action against the four officers involved.
“My wife cries every day. My sons and my daughters, they cry often,” he said. “It’s a home of emptiness. It’s an unbalanced home, because Saheed was the balance of the home and to lose him like that makes our home become unbalanced.”
On April 4, cops responded to three 911 calls about 4:40 p.m. regarding a man waving what people thought was a silver gun on the corner of Utica Ave. and Montgomery St.
When the officers arrived, Saheed Vassell turned to face them and, according to Chief of Department Terence Monahan, assumed a shooting stance and pointed at them. The four officers fired a total of 10 shots, hitting him multiple times.
“Our family are going through hard times,” Eric Vassell said. “Sorrow and pain for the loss of our son. We would like Mayor de Blasio to put those four NYPD officers either on desk duty or something because they are still on the beat after murdering Saheed Vassel in cold blood.”
The News previously identified the cops as Leon Dinham, Anthony Bottiglieri, Bekim Molic and Omar Rafiq.
Vassell refused to comment on the contents of the new video or whether he learned new information at the meeting. The attorney general is investigating the case.