‘SHOOT ME!’ HE YELLED
Cops pull trigger & kill Bx. man threatening to cut ma’s throat
A Bronx man fatally shot by police as he held his mother in a chokehold while claiming he had a knife to her neck dared cops to shoot him before a single bullet brought him down, harrowing body camera footage shows.
“Do it! I dare you! I f-----g dare you!” Michael Dotel, 30, yelled at NYPD Officers Alex Morgese and Mohammad Hossain as they responded to an assault in progress in Dotel’s 13th-floor apartment on Creston Ave. near Minerva Place in Bedford Park on Dec. 23.
When the officers arrived, they were met with a locked door before Dotel’s girlfriend pulled open the door and ran down the hallway screaming, the newly released footage shows.
Morgese had a Taser in his hand as he entered the small apartment, but quickly switched to his gun as Dotel kept his arm around his mother’s neck, the video shows.
“She’s gonna get it!” Dotel screams at Morgese. “Shoot me! Shoot me! Right now. Do it! Do it!”
While a knife isn’t seen in the video, Morgese asked Dotel about it and ordered him to drop it.
“Where’s the knife? Drop the knife!” Morgese ordered.
“I got the knife!” Dotel screamed back a moment before his mother fell limp and Morgese shot him from 5 feet away, the video shows.
Dotel was shot in the head. Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved. A large kitchen knife Dotel used was recovered at the scene.
Just before police arrived, Dotel had slashed his girlfriend, who was caught on camera running from the apartment, cops said.
Dotel’s mother wasn’t seriously hurt.
At the time of the shooting, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said that Morgese “saved a life” by shooting Dotel.
“These officers were met with a chaotic fast-moving situation, but they had great composure,” Chell said.
Dotel’s stepfather, who witnessed the fatal exchange, agreed.
“One shot. Single bullet,” the stepfather, who wished not to be named, said in December. “If [the cop] wouldn’t have done that, my wife would be dead. … He was using her as a human shield. It happened. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. … The cops are not at fault on this one.”
Chell said police had gone to the apartment on domestic violence calls before — but that Dotel had no documented mental health history with the NYPD.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office is investigating the shooting, as required by law in such incidents, to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the officers.
Both cops joined the force in 2021 and have no civilian complaints filed against them, according to the website 50a.org.