This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated September 27, 2024
Gregory Delpeche, 49, was riding an L train on a Sunday afternoon to his job at Woodhull Hospital in the Bronx. It was a routine trip he had made many times from his home in Brooklyn during his twenty-year career, but this commute senselessly changed his life forever.
On September 15, as his train was in the Sutter Ave station in Brownsville, a scuffle happening in another train car erupted in gunfire. One of those bullets struck Delpeche in the head, leaving him in critical condition. The bullet – and all of the bullets, for that matter – were fired by two NYPD officers. Delpeche’s family is demanding an investigation into the shooting they have said has left him with brain damage.
At the time this article was written, police officials had committed to releasing bodycam footage from the officer’s involved in the shooting within a few days. Police brass provided a timeline of their account of what had happened that Sunday afternoon.
Police officials stated that bodycam footage would show that Derell Mickles twice evaded paying his fare, first by hopping a turnstile and then, shortly after, by entering via the emergency exit door. Furthermore, the NYPD said that officers can be heard on video communicating to each other that Mickles had a knife.
After pursuing him up a few flights of stairs inside the station, the police description of what occurred states that Mickeles refused directions to drop a knife, was unaffected by either of the tasers deployed by the officers, and after moving toward one of the cops with a knife drawn, they fired.
In addition to the errant shot that struck Delpeche in the head, a woman was grazed in the leg, one of the officers was hit in the chest, and Mickles was critically injured with gunshots to his torso.
The NYPD had quickly released a photo of a knife they had recovered from the subway car floor where the shooting took place that they said was the weapon they Mickles had brandished. The following morning, they contradicted that claim, saying the knife they had recovered was the wrong one and not involved in the incident. According to their update, they were now looking for an uninvolved bystander who they allege removed the actual knife from the scene following the shooting.
If bodycam footage does confirm that Mickles was wielding a knife and refusing orders to put it down, that would confirm that officers encountered a dangerous situation on that train platform. And though Mickles, who has a long record with the police, may be someone who is liable to break the law, the entire chain of events that day were touched off by officers going after a farebeater.
I get it, slipping into the subway through the emergency exit is stealing. I have had people ask me to open that door for them as I am about to exit through the turnstile and I ignore it because I am not going to help someone enter without paying, but the idea that four people are shot by police, including an officer and two innocent bystanders, one critically, over $2.90 just does not make sense.
It is the same reason why, today, police forces across the country have policies that prohibit them from engaging in high-speed chases. Because with the high risk of hurting innocent bystanders, it is just not worth it, especially over a traffic violation.
The NYPD has one of those policies, except under Mayor Adams, they have had trouble adhering to it. As per data released by the Comptroller’s office this May, NYPD pursuits increased by 644% in one year under Adams, costing taxpayers $14 million more in crash claims. At this rate, it is bound to cost somebody’s life at some point.
This has been the culture under Adams, which follows his policies. NPYD overtime pay in the subway went from $4 million to $155 million this year. Last year, police spent an additional $150 million apprehending farebeaters that had skipped fares totaling just $104,000.
It just does not make sense to spend so much to nab about 35,000 fare evaders in a year when what was spent on that effort could provide over 50 million free swipes at subway stations. And it is really not worth it when we see something like the mass shooting that occurred on the L train this month.
Some may say that the farebeater on the L train that day was a bad man and it is his fault because of how he reacted to police engaging him after he slipped into the subway without paying. Try to explain that to the family of Gregory Delpeche.
