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mayor of new york city Zoran Mamdani The Queens District Attorney said Tuesday that he does not believe the Queens District Attorney should prosecute a mentally ill man who was shot by police after he allegedly charged at them with a knife, arguing the man needed mental health treatment.
On January 26, Jabez Chakraborty, 22, armed with a large kitchen knife, rushed toward police responding to his family’s emergency call for help. new york police department officer explain. Chakraborty was taken to hospital in critical condition after one officer shot him multiple times after officers repeatedly told him not to shoot as they tried to de-escalate the situation.
Family members called 911 to report Chakraborty throwing glass at his Parsons Avenue home. NYPD officials said the incident occurred in Briarwood, the New York Daily News reported.
When police arrived, Chakraborty charged at them with a knife, according to the NYPD. Police repeatedly instructed him to drop his weapon and tried to isolate him in the family’s living room by closing a glass door between them and Chakraborty. But police said he was able to open the door and use the knife to overpower officers.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he doesn’t think the Queens District Attorney should prosecute a mentally ill man who was shot by police as he charged at them with a knife. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
NYPD officials said the officers did not draw their guns until Chakraborty pulled out his knife.
After the shooting, officers provided first aid and attempted to stop the bleeding, according to the agency. He was subsequently taken to hospital where he is currently in critical but stable condition.
The family said in a statement that they asked emergency medical personnel to respond to the incident rather than police. Chakraborty’s family said he was shot at least four times.
“We called for help,” the family said. “We called 911 for an ambulance to provide medical care to our son who was depressed. We did not call the police. Instead of providing medical responders, the NYPD arrived and shot our son multiple times in front of us.”
Jabez Chakraborty, 22, armed with a large kitchen knife, rushed towards police who responded to an emergency call from his family. (NYPD)
The Queens District Attorney’s Office is investigating the incident, and preliminary reports indicate prosecutors are considering attempted murder charges.
But Mamdani, who has seen the body camera footage, said the man needed to mental health treatment rather than face criminal charges.
“While watching this video, it became clear to me that what Yabez needed was mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution by the DA, and that we are talking about a family that is enduring pain that no family should have to endure, and someone who has suffered from schizophrenia for years,” the mayor said at a news conference Tuesday.
“People experiencing mental health issues don’t always need to be served by the police first or only. It’s important for us to have all the options available to us,” he added.
Washington man allegedly lured police with fake 911 call, slashed officer in face
Officers asked the man multiple times to drop his weapon in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, before one officer fired his weapon multiple times. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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The mayor also said he had met with Chakraborty’s family, who criticized his initial response to the shooting. Mamdani said hours after the shooting that police “encountered an individual with a knife” and that he was “grateful to the first responders who put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe.”
“In the aftermath of all this, we saw a statement from Mayor Mamdani expressing his appreciation for the NYPD officers who shot our son, threatened us, lied to us, and denied us access to our son for 24 hours,” the family’s statement read. “Why should the mayor applaud police officers who recklessly nearly killed our son in front of us?”
