New York attorney general opens probe into police shooting of man who pointed pipe at officers

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ABCNews.com(NEW YORK) — New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened an investigation into the death of a black man who was allegedly pointing a metal pipe at police officers in Brooklyn when they shot and killed him Wednesday night.

Schneiderman’s press secretary, Amy Spitalnick, made the announcement Thursday via Twitter, adding that “we’re committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation.”

Witnesses told ABC station WABC that the man, identified as Saheed Vassell, was well-known in the Crown Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where the shooting happened. They said Vassell was believed to be mentally ill but generally harmless.

The New York City Police Department received several 911 calls on Tuesday just before 5 p.m. ET about a black man pointing what was described as a “silver firearm” at people along Utica Avenue near the corner of Montgomery Street, according to Chief of Department Terence Monahan.

“Three different 911 callers described a man with a gun, pointing it at people in the street,” Monahan said in a statement Tuesday night. “There is also video from commercial establishments along Utica Avenue that shows a man brandishing what appears to be a firearm — pointing it at people.”

Officers responded to the area where they encountered a man who matched the suspect’s description and approached him.

“The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform,” Monahan said. “This is corroborated with video we have reviewed.”

Four officers fired their weapons, striking the man. They then “immediately” administered aid to the suspect and requested an ambulance. The man was transported to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood, where he was pronounced dead, according to Monahan.

The suspect’s father, Eric Vassell, told WABC his son was bipolar but wasn’t on medication. He was unsure why Saheed was holding a pipe, but he told WABC that his son sometimes worked as a welder.

Although he admitted that pointing a pipe at people may have caused panic, Eric Vassell said the officers acted rashly.

“Police always have a choice,” he told WABC in an interview Thursday. “They should not train them to kill. They should train them to protect life, to save life as much as possible.”

“And the way they killed him, they didn’t give him no choice,” he continued.

Eric Vassell mentioned other incidents happening around the country in which unarmed black men have been fatally shot by police. Last month in Sacramento, California, 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot and killed by officers who believed he was armed with a gun, but all that was found on him was a cellphone.

“You cannot be a cop and all you should think about is your life, you know, you will lose your life so let me take a life to save my life,” Eric Vassell told WABC. “And that is what is happening today in the police force.”

Saheed Vassell’s mother, Lorna Vassell, told WABC she is furious with the officers for shooting her son without asking him to drop the object or put up his hands.

“I’m really angry and I’m really upset because the police did not have to shoot my son down like that,” she said.

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