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NY police kill man during drug bust in Inwood apartment
By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2022
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By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2022
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Police shot and killed a man as they tried to make an arrest in an Inwood apartment on Friday night.
At a press conference after the shooting, NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said officers from a federal task force were trying to apprehend two men at 72 Vermilyea Avenue as part of a drug investigation. He said at least one of the men started shooting at officers, prompting them to fire back.
Police took one of the men into custody right away, Maddrey said, while the other barricaded himself inside the apartment. Then, he said, the officers left the building and called in a hostage negotiation team to get the second man out. After they couldn't make contact with him for some time, Maddrey said, they went inside and found him on the ground, dead. They also allegedly recovered two guns in the apartment.
The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division will review the incident to see if officers violated any policies. The state attorney general's office also conducts a criminal investigation into every deadly shooting by law enforcement.
The NYPD did not immediately share more details or body camera footage supporting its version of events. The department also did not respond to a request for the total number of killings by police so far this year, or in recent years. According to the department’s online force dashboard, officers have used force in 6,403 incidents involving 6,437 individuals so far this year, though most of those incidents did not involve a firearm.
This is at least the second fatal shooting by police in the NYPD’s 34th Precinct this year. Officers also shot a man just a few blocks away last month. In 2011, officers shot and killed John Collado during another drug operation in the same neighborhood.
Tagged
police shooting
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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