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Police Kill Disturbed Man Who Refused To Drop Huge Knife, Slashed Cops' Bulletproof Vests
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 26, 2012
Modified Sep 26, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 26, 2012
Modified Sep 26, 2012
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Last night, the police fatally shot a Harlem man who allegedly refused to drop a foot-long knife and even slashed cops' bulletproof vests after they Tasered him twice. But Mohamed Bah's mother, who contacted police over son's behavior, says, "I'm disappointed in the police. I just called for help."
Bah's mother, Hawa Bah, called police because her 28-year-old son (she's in town from Guinea for his birthday this week) refused to open his door at 113 Morningside Avenue. Bah, a cabbie, opened the door for responding officers, but the Post reports that he was "naked with the blade in his hand. He slammed it shut and hostage negotiators were called."
Then the ESU officers "put a fiber-optic camera underneath the door, and Bah reached for it, rushed outside and charged at them with the weapon." Here's the NYPD's account:
ESU officers entered the apartment building and confronted the man as he emerged from the apartment and confronted officers armed with a foot-long kitchen knife. As the man advanced, refusing to comply with orders to drop the knife, ESU officers fired a Taser to no effect, followed by the firing of a rubber projectile, also to no effect. Then another Taser was fired a second time to no effect. The subject continued to advance on the officers to the point he was able to slash the vest of one officer, and to puncture a first aid kit attached to the vest of another officer. ESU officers then discharged their duty weapons striking the armed man in the torso.
Bah was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital.
Bah's brother told the Daily News, "He was a working man. He drove a taxi, he went to school. He was sick and he needed help. They called for help and they killed him.”
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fatal police shooting
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knife
mohamed bah
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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