NYPD Opened Fire on a Fare Jumper, Shooting 2 Bystanders and a Cop

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has a history of protecting bystanders by shooting them. This March, when Brooklyn man Nathan Scott tried to shoot a mugger who had his wallet, the NYPD killed Scott and wounded an auto mechanic across the street. In 2013, after a man in a road rage incident made finger guns and reached for his pocket, the NYPD tased the man and shot two women nearby. In 2012, after a disgruntled ex-employee murdered his coworker outside the Empire State Building, the NYPD shot the murderer along with nine bystanders.

This weekend featured yet another "police-involved shooting" against the public—except this time, the alleged threat didn't have a gun, and the confrontation was started entirely by police action. After chef Derrell Mickles allegedly snuck into a subway station without paying his fare on Sunday, the NYPD tried to arrest him. They claim that Mickles muttered "I'm going to kill you if you don't stop following me" and drew a knife. (Mickles' mother says the knife was from his job.)

After failing to subdue Mickles with a taser, the officers shot him, two bystanders, and one of their own in the crowded station. Police hit one of the bystanders, a 49-year-old man, in the head; he was in critical condition. So is Mickles, whose family only found out about the incident when a reporter from The Gothamist showed up at their house.

"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 doing the job we asked them to do," Interim Police Commissioner Tom Donlan said at a Sunday press conference. But some of the bystanders in the line of fire disagree. One video shared by independent local journalist Talia Jane shows a bystander shouting "They're shooting recklessly! He shot his own fucking partner!"

Mickles was within seven feet of the officers when they shot him, the NYPD says. Police are traditionally taught the "21-foot rule," which says that a suspect holding a knife within 21 feet is close enough to pose an immediate threat. But the 21-foot rule is not a license to start shooting anyone within that distance; Lt. Dennis Tueller, the Salt Lake City police officer whose 1983 research led to the rule, also recommended making a "tactical withdrawal" or trying to "avoid the confrontation altogether."

And a $2.90 subway fare seems like an awfully small thing to endanger the public over. Earlier this year, the NYPD and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced a crackdown on turnstile jumpers called "Operation Fare Play." In addition to costing around 4 percent of the MTA budget every year, MTA head Janno Lieber said, theft of services "creates a sense of disorder in a public space."

Of course, so does shooting up a crowded subway platform.