Surveillance video obtained completely by the NBC New York I-Workforce reveals an unmarked NYPD automobile crashing right into a gun suspect, simply because the suspect appeared to lift his arms in give up.
The collision occurred in Could 2024, after 29-year-old Giovannie Mayo sprinted down the sidewalk, making an attempt to elude police who mentioned they suspected he had a firearm.
The chase got here to an finish when the police automobile plowed into Mayo after making a pointy flip onto a part of the sidewalk which doubles as a storage facility driveway.
Although the surveillance video appears to indicate Mayo on the sidewalk transferring towards the storage facility, police bodycam video captured one officer declaring it was the pedestrian suspect who darted out in entrance of the unmarked automobile.
“He ran right in front of the car,” the unnamed NYPD officer mentioned.
Mayo, who suffered a traumatic mind damage and nonetheless has restricted capacity to verbalize, disputed that account via his lawyer, Nicholas Liakas.
“His hands were up. He had surrendered. He was clearly not armed at that point.” Liakas mentioned. “There is no excuse for them, in a situation like that, to use their vehicle as a lethal weapon because that’s exactly what it was.”
Each the bodycam video and the surveillance video had been obtained by Mayo’s authorized workforce, which has filed discover of a forthcoming lawsuit in opposition to the NYPD.
The NYPD declined to touch upon the newly obtained movies, telling the I-Workforce the incident is presently beneath inner assessment. The morning after the police pursuit, John Chell, then the NYPD Chief of Patrol, mentioned Mayo had simply pointed a firearm at a girl on the sidewalk earlier than he took off on foot.
That lady has since advised the I-Workforce she was by no means threatened with a firearm, and was merely speaking with Mayo on the sidewalk. Investigators mentioned they did find a firearm tossed by Mayo as he ran.
Monet Mayo, the suspect’s mom, advised the I-Workforce she believes the brand new video reveals her son was not a menace, and was run down anyway.
“Even if a person has their hands up or is still running because they’re scared,” she mentioned, “that doesn’t give you the right to do what you did. Run them over with your vehicle!”
The Workplace of the Brooklyn District Lawyer says it doesn’t intend to pursue prison fees in opposition to Mayo or in opposition to the NYPD personnel who ran him over. A rep for the DA declined to reply questions on whether or not NYPD personnel made false statements or dedicated misconduct associated to the incident.
The surveillance video of the collision and the bodycam video of the emergency response has develop into public simply months after the brand new NYPD Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, applied a coverage proscribing police chases in an effort to cut back pointless accidents to members of the general public, to officers, and to suspects.
“The NYPD’s enforcement efforts must never put the public or the police at undue risk, and pursuits for violations and low-level crimes can be both potentially dangerous and unnecessary,” Tisch mentioned in a January press launch.
Based on the brand new coverage, automobile chases are actually “limited to only the most serious and violent crimes (felonies and violent misdemeanors).”
The I-Workforce inquired, however the NYPD declined to say whether or not Mayo’s alleged possession of a firearm could be a permissible purpose to provoke a automobile chase beneath the brand new departmental tips.
Scaling again the NYPD’s coverage on automobile pursuits was a pointy reversal from 2023, when Chell famously warned suspects who attempt to escape police could be chased down.
“People thinking they can take off on us – those days are over,” Chell mentioned on the time.
Chell has since been promoted to Chief of the Division, the best uniformed rank within the NYPD. When the extra restrictive coverage on police pursuits was introduced in January, he modified his tone considerably.
“We need to pursue criminals when appropriate and stay our hand when the risks to the public and to our cops outweighs the benefits,” Chell mentioned.
