Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The victim's father, Eric Vassell, joined the protesters

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Brooklyn, New York a day after police shot and killed a black man with mental health issues.

Saheed Vassell, 34, was shot dead on Wednesday after police received calls of a man who appeared to be wielding a silver pistol and aiming it at people.

Officers and bystanders mistook the metal pipe in his hands for a gun, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said.

"If he was a white kid, he would not have died," his aunt, Nora Ford said.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Hundreds marched from the shooting site to the police station

"Oh my God - I'm so angry," she added during the Thursday night vigil not far from where Vassell died in the Crown Heights neighbourhood.

Video released by police show that in the moments before his death, Vassell had been brandishing the bent pipe like a gun and had pointed it at people on the street.

Image copyright NYPD Image caption Multiple 911 callers said that Vassell was pointing a gun and motioning like he was pulling a trigger

Directly before officers fired off 10 gunshots, Vassell put both hands on the pipe and aimed it at them in a way that police later described as a firing stance.

"The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a news conference, adding that they had received multiple 911 calls from onlookers.

None of the officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the "officers responding only understood, for the best of our knowledge so far, they were dealing with a situation of someone armed who had been aiming that weapon".

But on Thursday night, protesters said that Vassell was never commanded by officers to drop the weapon.

Image copyright Getty Images

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Police observed the peaceful rally from a nearby rooftop

"If the police saw something in his hand, tell him 'drop it - hold your hand up,'" his mother, Lorna Vassell, said during the vigil-turned-protest.

Witness Jacccpot Hinds told CBS News: "I seen the police car [come] in, police jump out and pop, pop, pop, pop".

"They didn't say 'freeze,' 'stop,' do anything, 'put your hands up,' nothing. Straight gunfire come out the gun."

Vassell's parents said their son was bipolar, but would not harm anyone.

State Senator Jesse Hamilton, who represents Crown Heights, demanded that Vassell's death be properly investigated.

"We are mad. Too many of our young men are dying on our streets," Mr Hamilton told the crowd as they gathered outside the police 71st Precinct, shutting down multiple lanes of traffic.

"‪Having a mental health issue shouldn't be a death sentence," he added.

Several New York protesters noted that Vassell's death came as the nation marked the 50th anniversary of the murder of civil-rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.

Image copyright NYPD Image caption He pointed the pipe at a parent and child at one point

The New York Attorney General's office said in a statement on Thursday that its Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit "has opened an investigation into the death of Saheed Vassell".

"We're committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation," the statement said.

According to police, Vassell had 23 prior arrests, including several violent incidents.

He had also been issued 120 police summonses, and had "at least one contact with police where he was described as emotionally disturbed", WABC-News network reports.

Image copyright NYPD Image caption Police released photos of the pipe he was wielding

Protests have also recently erupted in California over the killing of Stephon Clark, a black man who was holding a mobile phone in his hand when he was shot more than seven times in the back last month.

Clark was in the backyard of his grandmother's Sacramento home when he was shot dead by police.</s>NEW YORK: The New York State attorney general’s office said on Thursday it would investigate the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black man in Brooklyn after he pointed a metal pipe at officers that they believed was a gun.



“We’re committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive and fair investigation,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, said in a statement.

The death of Saheed Vassell on Wednesday was the latest fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by police, fueling more protests and heightening a nationwide debate over the use of excessive force by police and accusations of racial bias in the criminal justice system.

More than 200 demonstrators and activists took to the streets of the Crown Heights neighborhood in which Vassell was shot, chanting “Justice for Saheed.”

“They murdered my son and I want justice for him,” Lorna Vassell, his mother, said at the protest.

Police said Vassell was killed by officers responding to reports of a man aiming a gun at pedestrians. When the officers arrived, police said, Vassell took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at them.

The officers believed the suspect was holding a firearm, a senior police official told a news conference on Wednesday, and three plainclothes officers and one uniformed officer fired 10 shots. Vassell died in a hospital.

Police on Thursday released security camera footage that showed Vassell approaching people on the street and pointing the pipe at them as if it were a pistol. They also released partial transcripts of three 911 emergency calls.

“There’s a guy walking around the street, he looks like he’s crazy but he’s pointing something at people that looks like a gun and he’s pulling the trigger,” one of the callers said.

Local media reported that Vassell was 34 years old, suffered from mental illness, and was well known in parts of Crown Heights.

His killing followed the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed black man, Stephon Clark, 22, in Sacramento, California, that has sparked more than two weeks of demonstrations.

Officers responding to a report of someone breaking windows killed Clark on March 18 in his grandmother’s backyard. The officers feared he had a gun, but it turned out he was holding a cellphone, Sacramento police said.</s>NEW YORK (AP) - New York Police Department officials say the metal object that was mistaken for a gun in a fatal shooting by officers turned out to be the head of a welding torch.

Saheed Vassell's father has told reporters that his son had previously worked as a welder.

Hundreds of New Yorkers have rallied in protest of the Wednesday night police shooting.

This photo provided by the New York Police Department shows a metal object at the scene where police officers fatally shot a man who was reported to be threatening people with a gun, which turned out to be a metal pipe that police mistook for a firearm, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Saheed Vassell, 34, was killed Wednesday April 5, 2018, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. According to The New York Times, police had encountered him before and classified him as emotionally disturbed. (New York Police Department via AP)

Officers were responding to 911 callers reporting a man pointing a gun at people.

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH'-zee-oh) called the shooting a "tragedy" and said Vassell had "a profound mental health problem."

Rev. Kirsten Foy, National Action Network's Northeast regional director, center, with his sons, Seth, 7, far right, and and Samuel, 5, second from right, pray at a memorial, Thursday, April 5, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, where Saheed Vassell was shot by police a day earlier. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Protesters listen to speeches as they rally for a march to the 71st Precinct on Empire Boulevard to protest Wednesday's fatal police shooting of Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father of a teenage son, Thursday, April 5, 2018, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)</s>Hundreds of people took to the streets in Brooklyn, New York a day after police shot and killed a black man with mental health issues.

Saheed Vassell, 34, was shot dead on Wednesday after police received calls of a man who appeared to be wielding a silver pistol and aiming it at people.

Officers and bystanders mistook the metal pipe in his hands for a gun, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said.

"If he was a white kid, he would not have died," his aunt, Nora Ford said.

"Oh my God - I'm so angry," she added during the Thursday night vigil not far from where Vassell died in the Crown Heights neighbourhood.

Video released by police show that in the moments before his death, Vassell had been brandishing the bent pipe like a gun and had pointed it at people on the street.

Directly before officers fired off 10 gunshots, Vassell put both hands on the pipe and aimed it at them in a way that police later described as a firing stance.

"The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a news conference, adding that they had received multiple 911 calls from onlookers.

None of the officers were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the "officers responding only understood, for the best of our knowledge so far, they were dealing with a situation of someone armed who had been aiming that weapon."

But on Thursday night, protesters said that Vassell did not deserve to die, and was never commanded by officers to drop the weapon.

"If the police saw something in his hand, tell him 'drop it - hold your hand up,'" his mother, Lorna Vassell, said during the vigil-turned-protest.

Witness Jacccpot Hinds told CBS News: "I seen the police car [come] in, police jump out and pop, pop, pop, pop".

"They didn't say 'freeze,' 'stop,' do anything, 'put your hands up,' nothing. Straight gunfire come out the gun."

Vassell's parents said their son was bipolar, but would not harm anyone.

State Senator Jesse Hamilton, who represents Crown Heights, demanded that Vassell's death be properly investigated.

"We are mad. Too many of our young men are dying on our streets," Mr Hamilton told the crowd as they gathered outside the police 71st Precinct, shutting down multiple lanes of traffic.

The New York Attorney General's office said in a statement on Thursday that its Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit "has opened an investigation into the death of Saheed Vassell".

"We're committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation," the statement said.

According to police, Vassell had 23 prior arrests, including several violent incidents.

He had also been issued 120 police summonses, and had "at least one contact with police where he was described as emotionally disturbed", WABC-News network reports.</s>NEW YORK: New York police shot dead an African American man in Brooklyn on Wednesday after mistaking a piece of pipe he was holding a gun.

The shooting — which followed a similar incident that sparked protests in Sacramento and which came on the 50th anniversary of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr's assassination — is the latest in a string of killings by police that has sparked a nationwide debate on violence by law enforcement.

The shooting occurred shortly before 5:00pm in Crown Heights, a predominantly black neighbourhood in the heart of Brooklyn.

Officers responded after receiving three 911 emergency calls saying a man was pointing an "object that appears to be a gun" at people on the street, said Terence Monahan, Chief of Department for the New York police.

When police approached, the man "took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," Monahan said.

Four officers fired 10 shots at the man, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The object the man was holding was not a gun, but rather "a pipe with some sort of knob on the end of it," Monahan said.

Shortly after the shooting, dozens of people gathered at the scene, with many shouting and denouncing the conduct of the police, according to footage broadcast live on Facebook.

According to media reports, the victim of the shooting was known in the neighbourhood and was mentally ill but not violent.

The shooting came less than three weeks after police in the city of Sacramento fired 20 rounds at 22-year-old Stephon Clark, fearing he was carrying a weapon.

Clark, who was killed, was actually holding an iPhone.

Anger over the March 18 shooting erupted into days of protest in the streets of downtown Sacramento, with marchers blocking traffic and clashing with police in riot gear. — AFP</s>New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened an investigation into the death of a black man who was allegedly pointing a metal pipe at police officers in Brooklyn when they shot and killed him Wednesday.Schneiderman's press secretary, Amy Spitalnick, made the announcement Thursday via Twitter , adding that "we're committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation."Witnesses told ABC station WABC that the man, identified as Saheed Vassell, was well-known in the Crown Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where the shooting happened. They said Vassell was believed to be mentally ill but generally harmless.Eric Adams, the borough president of Brooklyn, thanked the state attorney general for launching a probe, saying in a statement Thursday, "We must all pursue justice.""I messaged Attorney General Schneiderman this morning to thank him for opening an investigation into the police shooting of Saheed Vassell in Crown Heights. Tragedies like this are why we fought for an independent Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit. We must all pursue justice," Adams said.The New York City Police Department received several 911 calls on Wednesday just before 5 p.m. ET about a man pointing what was described as a "silver firearm" at people along Utica Avenue near the corner of Montgomery Street, according to Chief of Department Terence Monahan."Three different 911 callers described a man with a gun, pointing it at people in the street," Monahan said in a statement Wednesday night. "There is also video from commercial establishments along Utica Avenue that shows a man brandishing what appears to be a firearm -- pointing it at people."Excerpts from the transcripts of 911 calls released by the New York City Police Department show that several callers reported a man with a "gun.""There's a guy walking around the street. He looks like he's crazy, but he's pointing something at people that looks like a gun," one caller tells the dispatcher. "And he's like popping it as if, like, if he's pulling the trigger."In a clip of surveillance footage released by the New York City Police Department, Vassell is seen walking down the street wearing a baseball cap and a brown jacket. He suddenly lurches forward at someone pushing a cart into a convenience store and points what appears to be a metal object at the individual.In another clip, Vassell allegedly does the same thing to a person walking and holding hands with a child.Officers responded to the area where they encountered a man who matched Vassell's description and approached him."The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform," Monahan said. "This is corroborated with video we have reviewed."Four officers fired their weapons, striking Vassell. They then "immediately" administered aid to him and requested an ambulance.Vassell was transported to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn's East Flatbush neighborhood, where he was pronounced dead, according to Monahan.Vassell's father, Eric, told WABC his son was bipolar but wasn't on medication. He was unsure why Saheed was holding a pipe, but he told WABC that his son sometimes worked as a welder.Although he admitted that pointing a pipe at people may have caused panic, Eric Vassell said the officers acted rashly."Police always have a choice," he told WABC in an interview Thursday. "They should not train them to kill. They should train them to protect life, to save life as much as possible.""And the way they killed him, they didn't give him no choice," he continued.Eric Vassell mentioned other incidents happening around the country in which black men have been fatally shot by police. Last month in Sacramento, California, 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot and killed by officers who believed he was armed with a gun, but all that was found on him was a cell phone."You cannot be a cop and all you should think about is your life, you know, you will lose your life so let me take a life to save my life," Eric Vassell told WABC. "And that is what is happening today in the police force."Saheed Vassell's mother, Lorna, told WABC she is furious with the officers for shooting her son without asking him to drop the object or put up his hands."I'm really angry and I'm really upset because the police did not have to shoot my son down like that," she said.</s>While the shooting of Stephon Clark continues to prompt questions on the West Coast about police conduct, an incident on the East Coast has now done the same. On Wednesday afternoon, April 4, New York City police officers fatally shot and killed Shaeed Vassell, which resulted in reports of outrage among dozens of people in the Brooklyn neighborhood where the shooting occurred. But who exactly is Shaeed Vassell?

Vassell is a 34-year-old black man and father to a 15-year-old son, who lived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. His father, Eric, told The New York Times that Vassell had bipolar disorder. At the time of his death on Wednesday, Shaeed Vassell was suspected to have been carrying a gun, but was instead found to have been carrying a metal pipe.

Vassell's death is reported to have stemmed from neighbors' call to police. On Wednesday afternoon, five officers had been responding to three separate 911 calls about a man allegedly threatening people with a silver gun, and the police found a man who matched description, The Times reports. Footage obtained by News 4 New York shows a man in the same area allegedly pointing a silver object at another person.

The search for the suspect resulted in four officers discharging their weapons and firing a total of 10 shots, killing the man, ABC New York reports. During his press conference, Police Chief Terence Monahan said the suspect appeared to have a gun at the time.

"This was not an EDP [emotionally disturbed person] call, this was not an emotionally disturbed call, this was a call of a man pointing what 911 calls people felt was a gun at people on the street," Monahan told media members. "When we encounter him, he turns with what appears to be a gun at the officers. We have to stay straight to the facts of this incident today."

Elite Daily reached out to the New York Police Department for comment on whether any formal charges were made in relation to the shooting, but has not yet received a response.

"The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," Monahan said. Chief Monahan additionally displayed a photo he said was taken of Vassell moments before officers fired, which purportedly shows Vassell facing the officers in the stance described.

Footage from Monahan's press conference can be seen in the video below.

Still, news reports of the shooting featured angry testimonies from members of the Brooklyn neighborhood were Shaeed Vassell lived.

“They didn’t say ‘freeze, hands up, drop your gun’, none of that,” one witness, Jaccpot Hinds, alleged while talking to CBS New York. “They didn’t say nothing. All they did was start shooting.”

Another resident told the news station that Vassell was harmless.

“He’s mentally ill but don’t mess with anybody,” the resident, O’Neil Headley, told CBS New York. “It’s very sad because it’s a dude from around here and a lot of people love him and he don’t mess with anybody.”

On Thursday, a day after the shooting, the New York state attorney general's office announced that it will investigate the shooting.

"The Attorney General's Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit has opened an investigation into the death of Saheed Vassell," press secretary Amy Spitalnick said in a statement, per ABC New York. "We're committed to conducting an independent, comprehensive, and fair investigation."

Meanwhile, Cynthia Nixon, the former Sex and the City star who announced her candidacy for New York's Democratic gubernatorial primary, addressed the shooting on social media.

"Yesterday, Saheed Vassell was shot and killed by police in Brooklyn. When we say we're going to address gun violence that must also include the shootings of unarmed black men and women by the police. #BlackLivesMatter," Nixon tweeted on Thursday.

Nixon's comment about the shooting of Vassell comes at a time when many argue that violence that predominantly affects black people has not adequately featured in national discussion on gun policy.

Meanwhile, the death Saheed Vassell, coupled with the killing of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, means another police shooting that is raising questions about how cops use deadly force.</s>New York City police responding to reports of a gunman threatening people in Brooklyn shot and killed a man who allegedly pointed a metal pipe at officers, authorities said.

Police were called to the Crown Heights neighborhood at about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday after three people called 911 describing a black man in a brown jacket pointing what was described as a silver gun at people on the street, the New York Police Department’s Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a briefing Wednesday evening.</s>Police fatally shot an unarmed black man walking down the street in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday.

Officers responded to three 911 calls reporting a man at an intersection pointing what callers believed to be a gun at residents, New York Police Department Chief Terence A. Monahan said in a news briefing.

“Today at 4:40 p.m., the NYPD received several 911 calls of a man described as a male black, wearing a brown jacket, pointing what is described as a silver firearm to people on the street,” Monahan said.

“The suspect then took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers,” the police chief said.

Four officers, three in plainclothes and one in uniform, fired 10 rounds among them, striking the man. The officers then called for an ambulance, Monahan said, and the man was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police did not immediately provide details about the man’s identity.

Police later determined the object the man had pointed at them was “a pipe with some sort of knob on the end of it.”

During the news briefing, Monahan held up printouts of security footage that showed the man pointing an object at a civilian and another one of him pointing at the police officers right before the shooting.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said on Twitter that the mayor had “received a preliminary briefing on the officer-involved shooting.”

Dozens of local residents gathered at the scene of the shooting Wednesday evening, many of them expressing their anger over the lethality of the officers’ response.

The shooting comes just two weeks after police fatally shot Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California, after receiving calls that someone in the neighborhood was breaking car windows. The African-American man, who was unarmed, was standing outside the home where he lived with his grandparents and two young children when the officers shot him eight times. It was later determined that he was holding a cellphone. The shooting escalated a national outcry over police brutality involving black victims.</s>NEW YORK (AP) — New York Police Department officials say the metal object that was mistaken for a gun in a fatal shooting by officers turned out to be the head of a welding torch.

Saheed Vassell's father has told reporters that his son had previously worked as a welder.

Hundreds of New Yorkers have rallied in protest of the Wednesday night police shooting.

Officers were responding to 911 callers reporting a man pointing a gun at people.

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio (dih BLAH'-zee-oh) called the shooting a "tragedy" and said Vassell had "a profound mental health problem."
Hundreds protest the Wednesday fatal shooting of Saheed Vassell by police in Brooklyn, New York, after a pipe he was holding was mistaken for a gun.