NYPD Releases Surveillance Footage of Saheed Vassell Shooting

The New York Police Department has released surveillance footage showing police opening fire on 34-year-old Saheed Vassell in Crown Heights last week. 

During an eight-second period in the video, a police car screeches to a halt, the door opens, and Vassell falls to the ground. The video is the first to show the shooting that sparked protests.

The surveillance video was taken from half a block away, and it's difficult to make out what Vassell (in the upper left of the screen) does just prior to the shooting. In the copy released to the media, the NYPD blurred out the image his body right when the shooting starts. Police allege he was pointing the scrap metal at them like a gun.

The NYPD had previously released several edited video clips and selected transcripts from 911 callers that led up to the shooting. On The Brian Lehrer Show last week, City Council Member Jumaane Williams said two of the three 911 callers suggested that Vassell could've had a gun, but weren't certain the weapon was real. 

"They also mention words like, 'He's acting crazy. He's doing foolishness,'" Williams said. "In the Caribbean lingo, 'foolishness' is another way of saying erratic behavior."

It's unclear if the officers on the scene shouted warnings at Vassell or considered his mental state.

The incident is under investigation by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has the power to review police shootings of unarmed civilians—or cases when it was unclear whether a civilian was unarmed.

In a statement Tuesday, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for public information, Phillip Walzak, said, "The attorney general’s office has thus far not objected to the release of video in the Vassell case. Today the NYPD is releasing the only footage in NYPD possession at this time that captures the shooting on video."