NYPD releases video, 911 transcript in Brooklyn shooting

Surveillance video released Thursday shows a man later shot dead by NYPD officers pointing a pipe at people as if it were a handgun before cops confronted him on a Crown Heights street.

On the 49-second video released by the NYPD, Saheed Vassell, 34, can be seen walking briskly with the pipe Wednesday. The video shows him approach a bystander before jabbing the pipe against the person’s chest. Another portion of the video shows Vassell pointing the pipe at a pedestrian walking with a small child.

Vassell’s family has told reporters that he had emotional issues but was harmless.

The NYPD released the video on the same day that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opened an investigation into the shooting. Schneiderman’s office was granted the power in 2015 to probe all deaths of unarmed civilians at the hands of police, as well as cases involving armed civilians.

Late Thursday afternoon into the night, Vassell’s family gathered with a crowd of about 400 for a vigil and protest at the Crown Heights intersection where officers shot him. The event was organized by a host of elected officials as well as the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

The last seconds of the video — a composite from four vantage points on nearby buildings — show Vassell jogging and suddenly stopping at the corner of Utica Avenue and Montgomery Street. He then uses both hands to point the object at an unseen target, later determined to be responding police officers. The officers then opened fire, killing Vassell, officials said.

A short time earlier, officers responded to numerous 911 calls reporting a man pointing a silver firearm at people, said Chief of Department Terence Monahan.

There was no indication in the calls about Vassell’s name or that he was emotionally disturbed.

According to Monahan, Vassell in the final seconds of the encounter took a “two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform.” The object turned out to be a short length of narrow, silver pipe with a flange at one end, possibly part of a soldering device, an official said.

Five officers responded, including two in the department’s Strategic Response Group, officials said. Four officers discharged their weapons, striking Vassell, Monahan said. A law enforcement source said the cops fired ten rounds. After Vassell collapsed, officers performed CPR, the source said, and he was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center.

The NYPD is conducting its own review of the shooting and the five officers remained on full duty as of late Thursday, police officials said.

Earlier Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the shooting was “a tragedy because a man with a profound mental health problem — from what we understand so far — was doing something that people perceived to be a threat to the safety of others.”

DeBlasio said cops only knew from the 911 calls about a man with a gun and nothing about his mental state.

At the Crown Heights intersection where cops shot her son, an emotional Lorna Vassell defended him and said he did not need to die. “I want to make it clear, Saheed came from a good family and they had no right to shoot him down, and he was not a gunman,” she said. “I want no one to portray him as a lowlife. He was a good man.”

With Matthew Chayes, Alison Fox and Ivan Pereira

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.