NYPD's fatal shooting of Saheed Vassell in Crown Heights faces AG investigation

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office will investigate the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old Crown Heights man by police, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Schneiderman’s office is invoking an executive order that gives him the ability to take over cases in which an unarmed civilian is killed by a law enforcement officer, or where there are significant questions as to whether the civilian was armed and dangerous.

Saheed Vassell was fatally shot by four officers while brandishing a metal pipe in Crown Heights on Wednesday afternoon. Police were responding to at least three 911 calls of a man “pointing what is described as a silver firearm at people on the street,” Chief of Department Terence Monahan said.

Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the AG’s office, said the Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit has opened a probe.

“We’re committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation,” Spitalnick said in a statement.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday called the shooting death a “tragedy by any measure” and promised that the three 911 calls will be disclosed to the public.

“The investigation has just begun,” said de Blasio, who emphasized that “people in the community thought he had a weapon and was aiming it at residents.”

In Wednesday’s shooting, Monahan said Vassell took “a two-handed shooting stance” at the approaching officers. The four officers fired about 10 rounds.

The officers were not wearing body cameras at the time, he added.

A police source said Vassell had 23 prior arrests, including for assault in 2003 and robbery in 2005, and at least one contact with police where he was described as being emotionally disturbed. He also had 120 summonses, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the citations were for.

The mayor, who took questions Thursday at the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, acknowledged that Vassell’s family has spoken of his “mental health challenge,” although 911 dispatchers weren’t informed of any such history when initially contacted, nor was Vassell on medication.

“Everyone wants to understand what happened in what sequence,” the mayor said. It’s “not a garden-variety situation.

“It’s 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,” the mayor said. “There’s a lot more we need to know.”

The mayor suggested that the shooting could have been avoided if Vassell had received professional help.

“These tragedies can be averted if we get people the help they need,” he said, and urged family members to “pick up the phone” to access the city’s health services.

“I can’t replay history... but a man like this, if he had gotten the help he needed, hopefully would never have been in the situation where such a horrible, painful tragedy would’ve occurred,” de Blasio said.

This is the 17th case Schneiderman has taken on throughout the state under the executive order. The first such case he prosecuted was that of Officer Wayne Isaacs, an off-duty cop who was charged with fatally shooting Delrawn Small when the pair stopped at a traffic light in East New York on July 4, 2016. In November, a Brooklyn jury voted not to convict Isaacs.

With Matthew Chayes