Police Shoot Fare-Evader in Brownsville, cop, Bystander Injured

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Nine NYPD bullets were fired. Gregory Delpeche, 49, an innocent bystander sitting on an L train subway car on his way to work at Woodhull Hospital is now fighting for his life after one of those errant bullets hit him in the head.

Trying to capture an alleged fare evader Derell Mickels, 38, in Brownsville, at 3 pm on Sunday, September 15, 2024, two NYPD officers shot three people including one cop involved in the shooting.

Gregg Nougues told Our Time Press that his cousin “is sedated. It’s a waiting game.”
“The shooting was reckless and irresponsible. This is The East, not the Wild Wild West,” Charles Barron, former East New York Councilman and Assemblyman, told Our Time Press. “It was reckless to discharge a weapon into a crowded subway station that could have killed innocent citizens because they were dealing with somebody who had a knife.

They have to find better ways of protecting the public when they are engaging in police activity. Three people were shot by police friendly fire? Bullets are not friendly when they are entering your flesh. You can’t justify it by saying somebody had 20 arrests and a knife–there is no justification for that reckless way of shooting.”

Barron held a press conference next to the Sutter Avenue L train stop, where he repeated the charge that officers shooting into a crowded, enclosed space was unconscionable.
Mayor Eric Adams said, “I think that those officers should be commended for how they really showed a great level of restraint. It’s just unfortunate that innocent people were shot because of that.”

Taken to Kings County Hospital where he remains in critical condition at press time, it was immediately announced Mickels has had 6 stays in hospital diagnosed as an emotionally disturbed person, plus almost 50 arrests.

Adams said, “He was shot because he had a knife. And he went after the police officers after repeatedly asking him to put down the knife. I thought those officers responded accordingly.”
On Wednesday morning, family members held a press conference in the park by the Brownsville Recreation Center.

Delpeche family co-counsel Keith White said, “People are not jumping turnstiles because they are broke, they are jumping turnstiles because the city’s policies are broken…This rests at the feet of a mayor…[and] the Chief of Police] who [are] not trying to accept responsibility.”

Brownsville Assemblywoman Latrice Walker demanded that “in addition to the release of the video, that an investigation be opened up by our New York State Attorney General’s office as it relates to the pattern and practice that this police department has undertaken, which has resulted in the level of injury and/or death that we have seen too many occasions.”

Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said he had seen the body-worn camera and other cameras there. He stated that at the L stop, Mickles walked in the gate without paying the fare; officers immediately followed him three flights up to the elevated platform, repeatedly asking him to stop. Maddrey claims that “the male mutters the words, you know, I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following.”

The officers said they saw a knife in his pocket. A train pulls into the station, and Mickels jumps on, officers said they ordered him to put down his hands and deployed an “ineffective Taser.” Jumping back onto the platform and moving towards the officers with the blade, cops said that they shot multiple rounds, hitting him multiple times and handcuffing him on the ground. Subsequently, they realize that both one officer and civilian subway riders are also hit.

Struck in the head and in critical condition at Kings County Hospital was Delpeche and grazed and treated at Brookdale Hospital, where a 26-year-old woman was hit in the leg. Hit under the arm above his bulletproof vest was the police officer.

“I don’t like to use that term friendly fire, but absolutely, we believe at this time that our officers were the only ones who discharged weapons,” said Chief Maddrey.
Reportedly the knife that the NYPD showed all over social media on Monday is not the knife allegedly held by Mickels. Cops now say that the knife is missing.
Responding to an Our Time Press inquiry about the knife, the NYPD stated that they are asking for the public’s assistance identifying an “unknown male individual [who] removed a knife from an active crime scene on an ‘L’ train.”

Gregg Nougues said his cousin “keeps to himself, is quiet, and hardworking. He has been with Woodhull Hospital for 20 years”
Saying that initially he thought it was a prank, Nougues said, “There’s no reason why he should not make it to work. I believe that the NYPD was reckless.”
Gregory Delpeche’s uncle Sampson Nougues, told Our Time Press. “This happens too often.”
Meanwhile, 18 people were arrested at the Sutter Avenue L train stop on Monday night, Nougues told the paper. “We support the protest. We just want everyone to be safe.”

Family attorney Nicholas Liakas told Our Time Press, “There’s an issue here with policing in general, specifically in Brownsville, and we’ve been all too familiar with catastrophic injuries at the hands of the NYPD. Just last month, we presented a case when the NYPD ran over an individual on the sidewalk just down the block. Now, they’re firing nine bullets into a tin cabin by two officers, and it unfortunately struck bystanders.”

Contemplating a lawsuit, Liakas said they are asking for the body camera footage to be released. “I understand the need for law and order, but at the same time, the reaction of the police and the aggression of the police needs to be checked, and the disproportionate response to the situation at hand is unacceptable.

That’s something that needs to be addressed across the board, and unfortunately, we’re seeing a more aggressive, confrontational force in specific communities, and that’s something that needs to change.”

“The community should definitely be calling for justice,” Assemblywoman Walker told Our Time Press. “We have watched as several institutions around our city have failed us. The MTA. The Police Department.”
The MTA?
“There is an all-out affront that the MTA has waged on communities of color, particularly around fare evasion. We have seen several reports that have come out, which indicate that most fear evasion tickets and/or arrests happened in communities of color, particularly here in the Brownsville community. We have come up with a number of programs, including free bus fare for the B60, which was not renewed by the MTA in this most recent budget, and we know that poverty is the number one indicator as to whether or not a person is going to fare evade.

But the punishment for fare evasion should be a citation or a ticket, certainly not winding up being Tazed, and definitely not winding up being shot to the floor of a train car, and definitely not an innocent bystander on his way to work or the woman who was shot, and definitely not a fellow police officer. So, we are watching a pattern in practice with the police department in order to go to excessive force, and we believe that there has to be a retraining and/or a repositioning of what happens when a person evades a fare.”

“Make no mistake, the events that occurred on the Sutter Avenue station platform are the results of an armed perpetrator who was confronted by our officers,” said new Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon.
“We have our force investigation division that looks into every police-involved shooting,” said Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard.