After Sutter Avenue Subway Shooting, Cops Promise Locals ‘Tactical Simulator’ to Show Policing Challenges

This article was originally published on October 3 at 11 a.m. EDT by THE CITY

Want more reporting from THE CITY? Sign up for Scoop, our free weekday newsletter, to have our latest news delivered right to your inbox.

In a fluorescent-lit meeting room of a Brownsville apartment complex, several dozen residents gathered for the monthly meeting of the 73rd Precinct Community Council last Thursday evening, a week and a half after two of its officers had opened fire in a busy L-train subway station, severely injuring two bystanders in pursuit of a man who had entered without paying the fare and while holding a knife. 

But scant reference was made at the monthly meeting open to the public of the shooting at the hands of police on the midday Sutter Avenue train platform. Instead there were polite rounds of applause for mentions of recent backpack giveaways, a successful national night out on crime, ghost cars officers had towed, and new initiatives like ticketing school kids for vaping. 

The shooting first came up 40 minutes in, with Commanding Officer Captain Odelle Despot saying that “obviously, we all know that we had a tragic incident in transit” but declining to comment further, citing the pending investigation from the District Attorney’s Use of Force Division. 

Shortly after, Assistant Chief Scott Henderson, head of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, offered one solution: a tactical simulator called the “FATS machine,” which stands for Firearms Training System. That system, formerly used by the NYPD for training, gives participants a gun connected to the simulator and powered by compressed CO2 gas and lets them run through different scenarios they might encounter as a police officer.

“I have secured that machine, we’re going to bring it here to Brownsville,” Henderson said. “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but sometimes you gotta walk in people’s shoes. So we’re gonna bring that in the near future,” he pledged. 

While some residents seemed satisfied with Henderson’s remarks, 40-year-old Clifton Aaron Hinton asked to address the crowd as the meeting closed. 

“Everybody in here wants to know about what’s going on with that L-train shooting,” he said. “But we’re gonna keep pushing it under the rug.”

He was swiftly shut down by Precinct Council Vice President Allison Jones-Harding. 

“The platform is not here to discuss that, especially because it’s an ongoing investigation,” she said, referencing a yet-to-be planned town hall. “There’s a time and place, as the chief mentioned, but this is not the platform.”

Precinct Council President Anthony Newerls offered an impassioned rebuttal to Hinton, saying he’d used the “FATS machine” — and accidentally shot six people. 

“Everybody can do a cop’s job until you’re a cop,” he said. “Here we are mad at the damn cops for shooting two innocent people, and every damn day in Brownsville other Black people shoot innocent people every day and nobody cares.”

The meeting closed swiftly after, with a brief prayer and another round of applause. Hinton, who runs a community group called Deuces Inc., which works with young people in the neighborhood, said he was dissatisfied with its resolution. 

“They need to address it,” he said of the shooting. “How long is this ongoing investigation? What is going to happen with the police officers involved? You understand? Because if it was me shooting someone out there, it wouldn’t be that ongoing. I’d probably already be in jail.”

A spokesperson for the NYPD said both officers involved in the shooting remain on full duty. 

‘You Have To Shoot Me’ 

The council meeting came 12 days after two 73rd Precinct NYPD officers – Edmund Mays and Alex Wong – opened fire on a subway platform while pursuing Derrell Mickles, who’d entered the elevated station without paying the fare and while holding a knife. 

Mickles told the officers to either go away or shoot him. The officers had pursued him into the car of an arriving train, where they’d fired Tasers at him that had failed to stun him as he pulled out the prongs. 

The officers firing their guns struck three people in addition to Mickles, including two bystanders. One of the officers also shot the other. Mickles, 37, was shot in the stomach.

The incident sparked several days of protests and subsequent police crackdowns  and has drawn fierce rebuke from left-leaning lawmakers, including Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, as well as the families and friends of the bystanders injured in the gunfire.

Ahead of his historic federal indictment on five corruption charges, Mayor Eric Adams and top NYPD officials repeatedly defended and even praised the police response. 

“I think those officers took great strides to bring a person with an over 20 arrest history. But this was a bad guy,” Adams said at a weekly off-topic press briefing on September 17 two days after the shooting. “And so some people said, well, you shouldn’t be enforcing fare evasion. No. This is not a city where any and everything goes.”

At a press conference at police headquarters a day later, Chief of Patrol John Chell described the situation as “fast-moving and fast-paced” and “a stressful situation.” 

“We did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of people on that train,” he said.

Chell also contested the incident was about fare evasion, saying Mickles had entered the station twice without paying, and the first time the same officers had escorted him out, only for him to re-enter without paying a second time 15 minutes later. 

“This incident was not about fare evasion,” he said. “This incident was about a person in mental stress armed with a deadly weapon and protecting our cops and citizens on that train.”

Chell said at that same press conference that one of the bystanders who had been struck had been “grazed.” Her lawyer later said the woman had a bullet permanently lodged in her leg and remained unable to walk. 

Mickles was indicted from his hospital room on charges of attempted aggravated assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to cause injury, second degree assault, menacing, theft of service, and attempted assault. Bail was set at $200,000 cash and $150,000 insured bond. His lawyer didn’t return a request for comment immediately. 

Body camera footage released by the NYPD in a Friday afternoon news dump showed Mickles backing away from police officers who repeatedly asked him to drop the knife and take his hands out from behind his back. 

“I’m not dropping nothing. You have to shoot me,” Mickles told the officers. “Leave me the fuck alone, leave me alone. Shoot me, shoot me.” 

The video shows police officers first fire their Tasers at Mickles as he exits the train back onto the platform and runs away. He then stands still as the two officers approach him from either side as both open fire. 

Officer Mays fired three shots, while Officer Wong fired six. “I’m shot, I’m shot, I’m shot,” Mays can be heard saying, as he continues to point his gun at Mickles, who collapses on the floor of the subway car, still appearing to hold a knife in his hand. 

The other bystander the police hit, Gregory Delpeche, 49, was shot in the head. He was in critical condition and had to have a part of his skull removed to relieve swelling, Gothamist previously reported.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. DONATE to THE CITY

Related Stories

• NYPD: Fare Evasion Played a Role in Downtown Brooklyn Subway Shooting
• Why Is Brownsville Beset With Gun Violence This Year?
• MTA Board Approves $68 Billion Plan Despite Hochul’s Congestion Pricing Pause

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.