One Hopped Turnstile, 9 Police Bullets, 4 People Shot. Does It Add Up?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/nyregion/subway-shooting-brooklyn.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1U4.RCNZ.3ddNJXcDn0Cq&smid=url-share

One Hopped Turnstile, 9 Police Bullets, 4 People Shot. Does It Add Up?
New York’s subway has been flooded with patrols to prevent crime and stop fare evasion. One Sunday in Brooklyn, it all went wrong.

A man coming home from an overseas trip. Another on his way to work. A woman off to a celebratory dinner.

They were three New Yorkers riding the subway on a Sunday afternoon in September, not knowing they would soon end up in a hail of police bullets meant for Derell Mickles.

Mr. Mickles, 38, had slipped into the Sutter Avenue L station in Brooklyn without paying. Two police officers had followed him to the elevated platform, catching a glimpse of a knife in his hand. Within minutes, the police would shoot two of the passengers, Mr. Mickles and one of the officers.

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But critics say that the fare evasion crackdown is misguided and too costly for what it recoups in revenue. And when it leads to a police encounter that escalates, as it did that Sunday, Sept. 15, the effort can quickly turn dangerous for the New Yorkers it is supposed to protect.

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3:07:15

Suddenly, Mr. Mickles stops near the open door of a car next to the one he was just in. He is facing Officer Wong several feet away. Officer Mays is farther down the platform. There are at least three people inside the car. One is Ms. Jahalal, on her way to her birthday dinner.

The officers have switched from Tasers to guns. They begin shooting.

3:07:18

Officer Wong fires six shots. Officer Mays fires three. Passengers scream and rush for safety. Mr. Mickles, clutching the knife, takes a couple of steps and crumples to the train floor.

“Put it down!” the officers yell. “Put it down! Put it down!”

3:07:21

“I’m shot!” Officer Mays shouts as he stands across the platform from Mr. Mickles.

In front of him, Mr. Mickles sits upright.

Both officers, guns drawn, continue to shout at him to put the knife down.

3:07:28

Officer Mays is yelling into his radio.

One of the bullets has hit him under the arm, and at least one is in Mr. Mickles’s abdomen. Another lodged in Ms. Jahalal’s left leg as she ran from the gunfire. Mr. Delpeche, who had moved as the police instructed, has been shot in the head.

It has been less than three minutes since Mr. Mickles slipped through the station gate.