On September 15, 2024 police open fire on Derrell Mickles in a subway station after uncooperation. The confrontation started after Derrell is seen jumping over the subway turnstile without paying. Police begin to follow him and force him to leave. About 10 minutes later, he is seen re-entering the station through another exit and the police begin to follow him at a short distance after seeing what seems to be a pocket knife in his right hand.
As the police are following him, they end up in front of a subway car. They confront him to drop the knife and after continuous yelling and Derrell allegedly muttering threats, police taser him in an attempt to get him to stop moving. After it doesn’t work, Derrell starts to run away. Police run after him with their guns pointed and shoot at him, hitting two bystanders and one of the police officers. There are many who have spoken out about this situation and heavy critiques on the police side and there has been an investigation regarding the act. Jennivive Wong, of the Legal Aid Society Cop Accountability Project says that the NYPD should’ve never opened fire in an enclosed space, that it endangered many more lives than just the four, and that the act was “disproportionate force”. One protester even states that “Two dollars and 90 cents is not worth a bullet shot to the head”.
The bullet should’ve never been fired while officers were running if they were going to be that unsteady when shooting. They certainly shouldn’t have opened fired in the subway station in the first place, but there are some still defending what the police has done. In fact, the police say that the incident was not about fare evasion and that it was about a man in mental stress in possession of a knife and officers protecting citizens. But how much can we take their word if the act of ‘protecting’ our citizens turned out to be the complete opposite?
New York Mayor, Eric Adams defends the officer’s response, saying that he thought those officers acted accordingly. He also says that Derrell was not shot for fare evasion but was shot for the possession of a knife and running at the officer. If we actually look at the body cam that was released, this statement is a total contradiction of the charges pressed against Derrell. Adams says that he is seen charging at the officers but the only charging that was shown was him running away from the officers. In fact, when police officers do open fire, Derrell is shown standing completely still, surrounded by the officers. While yes, if he was making audible threats and endangering others around him then he should’ve been reprimanded for that, but there is no reason that anything should’ve been shot off.
At the moment, there seems to be no updates on the investigation and if it was determined to be justified, but the police officer’s involved need to face consequences for the lives they put in danger.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/100000009711230/nyc-subway-shooting-bodycam.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/21/us/nypd-brooklyn-subway-shooting/index.html
