ABC 7
Friends and family members expressed their anger Wednesday night following the deadly police shooting of a man in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The NYPD said officers responding to reports of a man threatening people with a gun fatally shot a man carrying a metal pipe, mistaking it for a firearm.
The victim, Saheed Vassell, was well-known to everyone on Utica Avanue.
He was known for struggling with mental health issues. People say he was harmless, and that the police should have known that too.
Family members of Vassell were outraged.
“He lives in the church. He lives in the church. He never had a gun!,” an aunt said.
“Everybody is hurting right now,” said one of his cousins, who was in so much pain he could barely make sense of it. “He’s a good kid. They killed him for no reason,” he said.
The 36-year-old Vassell was a familiar face in Crown Heights. His death sent tensions high with officers on the scene.
“Shoot me too. And officer, stop murdering our people. How’s that sound?,” a resident said.
“He don’t trouble nobody. But he always do this, like he’s shooting and all that. Maybe that’s why they do all that shooting? I don’t know. But they shouldn’t shoot him for no reason at all,” another resident said.
Neighborhood residents say Vassell would go to the store for you if you asked him. At most, they say he would ask for a quarter or a cigarette.
His cousin says he leaves behind a teenage son.
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how are the police supposed to know it wasent a gun look at it from their angle someone is holding something that looks like a gun to you how are you supposed to know it isent what would you do
easy to sit by the keyboard while snacking on KLP Macaroons…
I was a volunteer with the NYPD – its a lot harder than typing on the KB –
and if BLM – then they should teach them to RESPECT the law!!!!!! just marches and more violence will not cut it
bravo well explained !!!!!!! u took the words out of my mouth
There is NO SUCH THING as “knocking them out without killing”. How exactly do you propose they do such a thing? Magic? The man was pointing what looked exactly like a gun at people; how could the police POSSIBLY know that it wasn’t? If he was pointing it at YOU would you want them to hesitate before shooting him?!
consisting of more then half people of color. So how or why can this be racially motivated. It’s simply standard procedure in these circumstances. The black man killed in Florida was also shot by a black police officer. How then do these groups justify the claim of racial bias. It would undoubtedly happen to a white, yellow or red man too! Please justify this if you can BLM!!
Cops need to be better skilled and better trained . Its no excuse to kill a man who appears a threat. Next thing you know it could be your family member whos a little disturbed and “appears dangerous. Than you will change your attitude about the person being shot at 8 times . Its a real shame that people dont understand this . Thats why i say. They can take a shot to imobilize the man enough to knock him out wirh out killing him.
I heard news report that police were responding to three separate calls to 911. There’s video footage of the man pointing something at a passerby. OF COURSE the police had to respond as they did!! This is NOT a case of #BLM – this was textbook ‘protecting innocents from a potentially lethal threat’.
Well put. Cops don’t just kill people for no reason. They react to threats or perceived threats. Instead of automatically putting all the burden on the police to stand down or whatever, the “leadership in the communities” s
“Black lives matter” is a racist criminal gang whose aim is to destroy policing so that thugs from their community can have free rein. If they were honest they would not protest the completely justified shootings of criminals like Michael Browne, Alton Sterling, and Stephon Clark.
There is no such thing as police gunning for black people; they shoot when they have to, regardless of color. They shoot white people all the time, but nobody protests about that. BLM doesn’t care about those lives.
There is NO SUCH THING as shooting someone in the leg. And even if there was, what would you achieve by shooting his leg? How would that stop him from using his gun? If someone is a threat to someone else’s life, and you have to shoot him, then you shoot to stop him, and that means you shoot at his center of mass. Trick shooting, such as shooting at a hand, or shooting the gun out of his hand, only exists in the movies. In real life it would be irresponsible and dangerous, and any cop who tried it… Read more »
“He don’t trouble nobody. But he always do this, like he’s shooting and all that. Maybe that’s why they do all that shooting?”
You reckon? If he is always pretending to shoot people, you have to expect that sooner or later someone is going to take it seriously, and shoot him in defense of themselves or others.
For all of you “keyboard warriors” saying that they should’ve only shot once etc. I doubt any of you have come face to face with a hostile situation, but as one who has been and witnessed quite a few, you can shoot a guy 4 times in the stomach and he will still try to get up and stab or shoot you. That being said, although it could be that the suspect had mental issues, but as a person who is supposed to protect you and your family, the cop has to make decisions within seconds to stop a man… Read more »
To #12
Beware!!!
Any highly trained, gun carrying cop might have assessed the situation (even in a nano second) and put the guy down injuring him, rather than taking his life!
It’s all about misused power, be it with tickets or cop weilding guns.
It doesnt even sound like “something gone wrong” but rather very much like a bunch of trigger happy cops!
Shocking.
Such a swift and uncalculating reaction -10 bullets!!!! could the next victim be someone actually “playing” with a plastic toy gun!!!!
It is shamefull.
10 rounds for looking like a gun? Cop shouldn’t be a cop. So unfortunate.
f it takes ten rounds to take care of a threat that’s a problem these officers are not trained properly
Why do parents, black, white, brown and yellow, encourage kids to play with guns? Stop this bad habit and you won’t have people like Vassell who “”But he always do this, like he’s shooting and all that.”
A few things here, First of all, I do understand that this man did have mental issues and that this is story is very unfortunate, and I wish my condolences to the family. However, you (and all “black lives matter activist”) have to realize that we have our law enforcement which risk they’re lives to protect us (I’m not talking about ticket cops), now imagine you get a call on the radio saying there’s a man waving a gun at pedestrians and threatening them, and you take the call and you’re the first responder. Imagine driving toward this destination thinking… Read more »
They could’ve shot him in the leg. These cops are brutal and over zealous. Its just shameful. Next thing you know they’ll shoot children because they can’t tell the difference of anything. These cops are really pathetic
Collive did update the story since my last comment. Thank you!
I don’t understand why do the cops have to shoot to kill, they could of shot the guy just 1 time not 10 times
There is more information available now. Im asking that COLlive updates the story with the corrected facts and more information. He was known to have mental problems and was shot 9 or 10 times. It does not seem that any kind of de-escalation techniques were put into place, as he was shot right away. The crowd described are people connected to the Black Lives Matter movement and upset with the needless killings of Black Americans across the nation and implicit bais. Every Chossid should try to think about how we would feel if this happened to a known mentally ill… Read more »
NYPD Mobilizations happen every day for a variety of reasons. The common responses are:
Level 4: Citywide, Pct Personnel
Level 3: Boro, Pct Personnel
Level 2: Citywide, Task Force
Level 1: Boro, Task Force
I live right there
The reports of riots is not true. I was there. Fake news.
What is level 3 mobilization? And are there riots or its rumors?
If you listen to the radio, they said that the guy was holding something that looked like a gun and turns out it was a pipe. There’s a lot of uprising…..
Hope this info is helpful
Ad mosai????
What does level 3 mean???