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Bronx man shot by police sues city and NYPD, seeks damages and reforms
By
Joe Hong
and
Christian Santana
Published May 3, 2026
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Courtesy de la Cruz's family.
By
Joe Hong
and
Christian Santana
Published May 3, 2026
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A Bronx man who was shot by NYPD officers responding to a 311 call in 2023 filed a new lawsuit against the department and the city last week, and is seeking damages for his injuries as well as an injunction to prohibit New York City from “continuing to enforce its current police-run mental health crisis response policy.”
Raul de la Cruz experienced a schizophrenic episode while visiting his family in March 2023, and believed he was being persecuted by the government, according to court documents. His father called 311 for help, and two NYPD patrol officers were dispatched to the scene, according to the suit. Neither spoke Spanish, de la Cruz’s primary language, according to court documents, which go on to state that the officers, Derek Bernard and Nicholas Trupia, didn’t formulate a plan or consider appropriate tactics to safely manage and de-escalate the situation. When de la Cruz started walking toward the officers while holding a knife, he was shot seven times, according to the suit. The documents say he suffered physical and psychological injuries and still has a bullet lodged in his back.
The lawsuit was filed on April 29, a month after a federal judge dismissed de la Cruz’s previous case against the city. De la Cruz appealed that case to the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals this week. This new lawsuit filed with the state, his lawyer Jody Yetzer said, makes the same arguments as the federal case but had to be refiled because the federal judge did not want to rule on certain claims related to state laws. It also comes as New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has expressed support for reforming the NYPD and how the city responds to mental health emergencies.
“A person experiencing a mental health episode does not always have to be served first or exclusively by a police officer. It is important for us to have all of the options available,” Mamdani said at a news conference in February after the police shooting of Jabez Chakraborty, a Queens man who was experiencing a mental health episode.
Yetzer expressed hope that the Mamdani administration would be more sympathetic and open to settling de la Cruz’s case.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Yetzer said by phone on Saturday. “We have a shared goal, given Mayor Mamdani’s support for non-police responses to mental health emergencies.”
During his campaign, Mamdani ran on promises to create a city agency that would, among other things, allow 911 operators to divert more emergency calls usually handled by police to social workers and other non-law enforcement responders. In March, Mamdani signed an executive order to create a scaled-down Office of Community Safety and appoint a deputy mayor to lead it.
Mamdani has singled out a de Blasio-era program known as B-HEARD – or the Behavioral Health Emergency Response Division, which sends mental health professionals and EMTs to certain mental health emergencies – as a central component of the brand new office.
De la Cruz’s suit calls the city’s efforts to improve mental health crisis response training “woefully inadequate and ineffective” and demands that the city create new programs that enable healthcare professionals to respond to mental health crises.
“While B-HEARD is a recognition of the need for reform, its inadequacy means that police officers continue to be dispatched unnecessarily in far too many situations, thereby defeating its stated purpose of reducing police response to individuals in the City who are undergoing a mental health crisis,” the suit states. Court documents add that B-HEARD was not available in the Bronx precinct where de la Cruz’s family called for help.
Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the city’s law department, said the city’s counsel will review these pending matters and did not comment on the allegations.
According to data from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates police misconduct, Trupia had no record of being trained in responding to mental health crises. Bernard and a third officer who responded, Elyjah Bennett, had received four modules of training on “responding to people in crisis” in 2019. In 2024, about a year after their encounter with de la Cruz, the two officers received more training on “engaging individuals in a mental health crisis.”
In response to de la Cruz’s shooting, the CCRB found in 2024 that Bernard used unauthorized force and abused his authority and recommended that he be fired. But the police commissioner at the time rejected the board’s recommendation, news outlet The City reported. Charges of excessive force were also substantiated against Bennett, according to the CCRB. Trupia, meanwhile, resigned before the investigation was complete, according to the CCRB.
Tagged
new york city
public safety
the bronx
Joe Hong
Joe Hong is the investigative data reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. He previously covered K-12 education for several newsrooms across California. His reporting has led to local reforms in juvenile justice system as well as a state law requiring universal screening for dyslexia. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Christian Santana
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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