NYPD Cops Fatally Shoot Bipolar Black Man Holding Metal Pipe Police Mistake for Gun on Brooklyn Street

By Laura Dimon, Richard Schapiro, Ellen Moynihan, John Annese and Janan Fisher

A bipolar Brooklyn man waving a metal object at passersby was fatally shot by police Wednesday when cops responding to 911 calls for a man with a gun said he “took a two-handed shooting stance” and pointed at them.

The man, identified by family members as Saheed Vassell, 34, was a Jamaica-born welder and the father of a teenage boy.

Police said they were responding to three 911 calls that came in around 4:40 p.m. about a black man wearing a brown jacket waving what people thought was a silver gun on the corner of Utica Ave. and Montgomery St., NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said at a press conference.

When the officers got to the street corner, Vassell turned to face them, aiming the object at them, Monahan said.

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Source: The New York Daily News (via Empire Report New York)