The knife-wielding suspect wounded by police in the contentious “friendly fire” NYPD subway shooting told cops, “You’re going to make me kill you,” prosecutors revealed in court Friday.
An arraignment for Derrell Mickles, 37, in a Brooklyn courtroom provided new details on the tense Sunday showdown that ended with cops opening fire, hitting Mickles, two innocent bystanders and an officer.
Assistant District Attorney Steven Bravo described video footage from the encounter. He said Mickles, who appeared by video from a hospital bed, held a knife as two cops trailed him after seeing him jump a turnstile for the second time within nine minutes.
“You’re going to make me kill you, if you don’t f—ing leave me the f— alone,” Mickles told cops, Bravo said.
The cops repeatedly told Mickles to drop the knife, Bravo said.
“The defendant says, in some substance, ‘I’m not dropping the knife. Shoot me,’” he said.
Mickle’s defense attorney Jonathan Fink said his client had a “pretty minimal” criminal history, which includes drug and assault convictions.
“I haven’t seen the video, it seems like there might be a strong argument that there was disproportionate force used by the police in this case, the fact of the matter is my client is sitting in a hospital bed, seriously injured,” Fink said.
“He tells me he’s not able to walk. I don’t know if that’s something that’s permanent or temporary, but he’s obviously in very bad shape as a result of being shot by the police for what sounds like, you know, really a therapy-type offense.”
Mickles pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on a $200,000 fully secured bond, or a $1.5 million partially secured bond.
He faces charges of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, assault with intent causing serious injury with a knife, second-degree assault, menacing a police officer with a knife, criminal possession of a weapon and two counts related to turnstile jumping.
The hearing unfolded hours before the expected release of hotly anticipated body-cam footage – which was promised by police brass this week amid an uproar over the shooting.
The family of bystander Gregory Delpeche, who is sedated in critical condition after being shot in the head by police during the fracas, called the cops’ actions “reckless.”
They planned to address the media Friday at 5 p.m. in response to the footage, which they expected to be released by then.
NYPD officials have double-downed on defending the cops’ actions, contending the body-cam footage showed the officers telling Mickles to drop his knife 38 times.
The cops also tried to Tase the suspect twice, but he pulled out the prongs, officials said.
