Footage shows NYPD officers shooting a man with a knife in a subway shooting that left 4 injured

NEW YORK — Footage of two New York City police officers opening fire at a subway station while confronting a man with a knife shows them shooting at him as he stands still, with his arms at his sides and his back to the train.

In the days since Sunday’s shooting, police officials have repeatedly stressed that the officers fired after Derell Mickles “attacked” one of them and when their attempts to de-escalate the situation and use Tasers failed, they had little choice but to resort to deadly force to protect themselves and passengers.

The footage, uploaded to the NYPD’s YouTube page on Friday, offers a different perspective on the shooting that left not only Mickles injured but also a bystander, who was struck in the head by a stray bullet. Gregory Delpeche, 49, was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where doctors had to open his skull to relieve swelling in his brain, his family said.

“The NYPD’s version of events is a gross distortion of what we see in that video,” said Nick Liakas, an attorney representing Delpeche’s family. “There was no reason to let bullets fly in the subway station, especially in an environment where the officers were endangering innocent bystanders. And it resulted in Gregory being shot in the back of the head.”

Police officers defended the officers during a press conference on Wednesday.

“It happened because an individual decided to enter our subway system, refused to drop that weapon after repeated commands from officers, and then walked toward officers while armed,” said Interim NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon.

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell described the shooting as a “tragic situation” and said, “We did our best to protect our lives and the lives of the people on that train.”

As Chell described it, Mickles jumped a turnstile at a subway station in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn just after 3 p.m. Sunday. The two officers asked the 37-year-old Brooklyn resident to leave, and he did, but Mickles was seen unfurling a knife as he walked out.

When Mickles returned to the station a few minutes later, the officers followed him up the stairs to the raised platform. In the body camera footage, they tell Mickles to drop the knife. Mickles, standing with his hands behind his back, says, “I’m not dropping it, you’re going to have to shoot me.” The officers repeatedly beg him to show them his hands. He tells them to leave him alone.

As a train pulls into the station, Mickles backs away. The officers follow him. They repeatedly say “put it down” and then fire their tasers, which have little effect, and land in Mickles’s T-shirt before he rips them out and walks off the train.

Now on the platform, Mickles holds the knife with the blade open. The officers follow him from different doors, and Mickles runs toward one officer, who runs backwards.

When the officers draw their weapons, Mickles stops completely, hands at his sides, in front of the train. As Mickles turns his head slightly to the left, they fire multiple shots. Mickles falls into the train as the passengers flee inside.

Chell said Wednesday: “Mr. Mickles charged one of the officers and turned around and the other officer was standing there about 5 feet away. At that point, they both discharged their weapons.”

In addition to Mickles and Delpeche, one of the officers was injured in the shooting. A 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound.

Earlier Friday, Mickles, who appeared remotely from his hospital bed, pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, threatening an officer, weapons possession and evading his subway fare. The judge set his bail at $200,000.

Mickles’ attorney, Jonathan Fink, said his client is in “very poor condition” and cannot walk.

“There appears to be a strong case that the police used excessive force in this case,” said Fink, who has not yet seen the video.

Police reform advocates condemned the shooting.

“This horrific event that put dozens of transit riders in danger did not happen out of nowhere,” Loyda Colon, of the advocacy group Communities United for Police Reform, said in a statement Friday. “It happened because the mayor has invested in flooding our subway system with officers and communities to criminalize mental illness and poverty, rather than making public transportation, housing and services affordable and available to New Yorkers.”

Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police chief, said he had seen the videos and that the officers should be commended for their “great amount of restraint.”

“I saw the steps that those police officers took,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Over and over again, over and over again, trying to reason with the offender. And so some people said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be enforcing fare evasion.’ No. This is not a free-for-all city.”

After the footage was released, his office issued a less effusive statement, noting that the NYPD’s initial investigation determined that the shooting occurred after Mickles “handled a dangerous weapon and endangered the lives of officers.”

“While the formal investigation is ongoing and out of respect for that process, I will not be commenting further,” Adams said.

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Associated Press editor Karen Matthews contributed to this report.