Police Release Video of Crown Heights Man Leading up to NYPD Shooting Death

Police released video clips and transcriptions of 911 calls leading up to the fatal NYPD shooting of a mentally ill Crown Heights man Wednesday afternoon.

Four police officers opened fire just before 5 p.m., shooting and killing Saheed Vassell, 34.

Police say he turned and pointed what they thought was a gun at them. After firing ten rounds, the officers found Vassell with a metal pipe with a knob on it in his hand, not a gun.

Vassell was shot between seven and nine times, according to the city's Medical Examiner's Office: once in the head, twice in the chest, once in the abdomen, once in each arm and he had three other wounds on his legs. 

Residents near the Crown Heights intersection said Vassell was a fixture of the neighborhood, and known to be be mentally ill, but not violent.

On Thursday, police released video clips that showed Vassell holding the metal pipe and approaching several passersby and pointing it at them.  The NYPD did not release any video of the shooting itself. They also refused to release the full audio recordings of the 911 calls.

Police also published a partial transcript of several 911 calls that brought the anti-crime unit to the the intersection of Utica Avenue and Montgomery Street.

"There is a guy in a brown jacket walking around pointing...they say it's a gun, it's silver," one caller said.

"There's a guy walking around the street," said a second. "He looks like he's crazy but he's pointing something at people that looks like a gun and he's like popping it as if like if he's pulling the trigger." 

At an unrelated press conference Thursday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the shooting "a tragedy."

"This is someone who had a profound mental health problem, was not on medication, hadn't been on medication, this doesn't make it any less a tragedy," de Blasio said.

"These tragedies can be averted if we get people the help that they need," he said. "I can't replay history, none of us can, but a man like this, if he had gotten the help he needed, hopefully would never have been in such a situation, where such a horrible painful tragedy would have occurred."

Several neighbors described seeing Vassell help elderly residents carry groceries or with other odd jobs. Sometimes he could be seen pacing up and down the street muttering to himself, they said. A friend of his from the neighborhood, Juan Carlos Victor, said he saw Vassell carry an elderly person who had slipped and fell to an ambulance nearby. 

"It just don't make sense," he said, a day after the shooting grappling with his friend's death. "It's not like you cannot distinguish a pipe, you're trained for this."

Residents and activists have planned a vigil planned Thursday afternoon, followed by a march to the neighborhood's 71st Precinct.

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, who represents Central Brooklyn including Crown Heights, expressed frustration on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show.

"Somewhere along the line we've got to get to the point in policing where we're able to verify information, we're able to gain more intelligence before engaging in gunfire like this," she said.

The New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office is investigating Vassell's death. Under a state executive order from 2015, his office has jurisdiction to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians. 

"We’re committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation," said Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the Schneiderman's office.