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Victim's Family: "Suicide by Cop" Could Have Been Avoided
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2010
Modified Oct 5, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2010
Modified Oct 5, 2010
Share
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Police say they fatally shot Inwood resident Emmanuel Paulino as he charged at them with a knife early Sunday morning, and they released a transcript of his 911 call declaring his desire to kill cops. Paulino even provided his address, and when cops arrived, they failed to subdue him with a Taser failed and opened fire. But Paulino's family says the police overreacted and failed to help their emotionally disturbed relative.
"The bottom line is that Emmanuel Paulino was a sick individual who needed help and was seeking help, and I guess the call he made seeking help only brought his death," says Fernando Mateo, a community activist with Hispanics Across America who was speaking on behalf of Paulino’s mother and four sisters. Paulino's family also criticized the NYPD for releasing the 911 tape so quickly. "Someone who makes this type of call to the Police Department ... is not in his right state of mind," says Mateo.
"These officers did everything they could reasonably do," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday. "They told him to drop the knife. They backed off. They used the Taser. They continued to back off. He said, ‘Go ahead I want to died, shoot me,’ or words to that effect." Kelly explained that the Taser failed because only one of the darts made contact with Paulino's body; the second got stuck in his shirt. "It's a circuit," Kelly said. "You need the two darts to work."
An Emergency Service Unit, which is trained with non-lethal methods of subduing an emotionally disturbed person, was on the way to the scene, but Paulino was shot dead before they arrived. The Daily News notes that the court had recommended Paulino receive mental health treatment after he served 20 months in federal prison for getting caught at Kennedy Airport swallowing 51 "pellets" of heroin.
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Emmanuel Paulino
suicide by cop
taser
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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