NYPD searching for man who took knife from scene of Brooklyn subway station shooting
NEW YORK -- There are new details on Sunday's police shooting on a Brooklyn subway platform that injured four people, including an NYPD officer and two civilians.
CBS News New York learned on Monday a bystander took a knife that was at the scene that police said the suspect was wielding at the time he was shot by officers. The NYPD released an image of the man they are looking for.
Police sources say after the suspect was wounded by cops, that knife was visible at the scene. Surveillance video, however, shows that bystander walking away with it. Police now say that man is wanted for criminal possession of a weapon. If you have any information, please contact the NYPD.
"'I'm going to kill you if you don't stop following me'"
There was chaos on the L train platform inside the Sutter Avenue station in Brownsville. NYPD backup responded to shots fired by two officers at a suspect, but police say the bullets also struck a 49-year-old man in the head who is now in critical condition at Kings County Hospital, and grazed a 26-year-old woman.
The injured officer was expected to be released from Brookdale Hospital on Monday. The suspect, who is in critical condition at Kings County Hospital, has 47 arrests, most recently in 2021 for burglary, police sources say. They added he also has been hospitalized six times on emotionally disturbed person calls.
Exclusive video shows a man, who appears to be the suspect, in handcuffs on the floor of one car. It was then that one officer realized he was shot in the armpit.
Police sources say the suspect is 38-year-old Derell Mickells, who police said did not comply with officers' commands to stop after he evaded the subway fare.
"He mutters the words, you know, 'I'm going to kill you if you don't stop following me,'" NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.
The NYPD said the two officers followed the suspect to the elevated subway platform where they noticed he had a knife. The suspect allegedly ignored commands to take his hands out of his pockets and advanced on one of the officers with a knife.
The NYPD said their tasers were ineffective, so the officers opened fire.
"It was lawful, but it was awful"
CBS News New York spoke with a law enforcement expert about the protocol for incidents like this.
"The officers were authorized to deploy deadly physical force because the suspect was in possession of a knife. Commands were made to drop the knife. He refused and as a result they started with what we refer to as non-lethal, which would be the Taser," former NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher said.
Porcher said the shooting will be investigated by the NYPD Firearms Discharge and Review Board. He said he believe the officers will be retrained.
Police sources say one cop fired six shots, and the other fired three.
"When you believe there's a propensity for an innocent civilian to be shot, a fellow police officer to be shot, that wouldn't be in best interest to discharge firearm," Porcher said. "The assessment could have been done differently, but hindsight is always 20-20. It was lawful, but it was awful."
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
