Mayor Adams praises NYPD cops after subway shooting in Brooklyn wounds 4

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday praised the NYPD officers who opened fire in a Brooklyn subway station and struck four people — including two bystanders and a fellow officer — saying the police did their best under trying circumstances: confronting a fleeing, menacing farebeater with a knife.

The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon at the Sutter Avenue L station. One of the wounded bystanders was going to his hospital job. He was shot in the head. Another bystander, a woman, sustained a graze wound. The alleged farebeater was shot in the stomach  and the officer in the chest area, under the armpit.

"I think that those officers should be commended for how they really show the great level of restraint," Adams said, speaking at his weekly news conference at City Hall. "And it's just unfortunate that innocent people were shot."

Combating fare evasion has been a government priority since Adams took office in 2022. He has argued there’s sometimes a dangerous overlap between those who don’t pay and violent criminals. Nearly $700 million in estimated revenue went uncollected in 2022 — $285 million in subway fares, $315 million in bus fares — according to a fare-evasion analysis by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the transit system. More than 1,000 police officers per day have been infused into the subway system, and $150 million spent on overtime for subway patrols.

According to an NYPD account released Sunday night, hours after the shooting, officers were pursuing a man spotted failing to pay the $2.90 fare to enter the subway system. He tried to flee, muttering to himself, on a train and platform, threatened the officers and took out the knife. Officers fired their Tasers but failed to disable him. That’s when they opened fire.

The alleged farebeater, Derell Mickles, 37, of Brooklyn, was later arrested and charged with attempted assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and theft of service, according to the NYPD press office. 

"This was a bad guy. And I saw the video. I saw the steps those police officers implemented. Over and over again, trying to reason with the perpetrator," Adams said. "And so some people said, ‘well, you shouldn't be enforcing fare evasion.’ No. This is not a city where any and everything goes."

The NYPD and Adams have declined to release body-camera footage to corroborate the official account or explain why the footage isn’t being released as occasionally in the past, particularly when footage absolves officers of wrongdoing.

Adams said there would be an NYPD investigation into the shooting.

"All shootings, you do an analysis to determine what we can do differently. But those officers stopped a very dangerous person who was committing a crime," said  Adams, who chafed at the accusation that police shot a man simply for failing to pay the fare.

As for the alleged farebeater’s knife, "an unknown male individual" took it from the crime scene and fled, according to a wanted poster sent out by the NYPD after the shooting. It's still missing. 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.