Queens District Legal professional Melinda Katz on Friday filed expenses of tried assault within the first diploma and legal possession of a weapon within the fourth diploma towards Jabez Chakraborty, a 22-year-old man who has lived with schizophrenia who was shot final month by law enforcement officials. The cost comes regardless of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s public pleas to not have him prosecuted.
Chakraborty pleaded not responsible because the indictment was unsealed at an arraignment the place he appeared nearly from Jamaica Hospital, the place he’s nonetheless recovering from a number of gunshot wounds because the Jan. 26 incident. He periodically burst into tears all through the continuing.
Choose Jessica Earle-Gargan rejected the DA’s request to carry Chakraborty, who has no prior legal convictions, with out bail whilst a prosecutor described him as a violent man who had attacked his household and a neighbor on prior events.
She as a substitute granted his launch on $50,000 bail.
Chakraborty is confined to a hospital mattress with severe wounds to his abdomen and groin that go away him unable to face or stroll.
“That is an especially tough case,” Choose Earle-Gargan mentioned whereas criticizing the town and state psychological well being techniques. “It is a tragic state of affairs to say the least.”
Chatting with reporters simply after the arraignment, Katz defended her charging choice, rhetorically asking: “What occurs if we take no motion and he harms another person? Mr. Chakraborty’s actions had been fairly severe and he now faces severe penalties.”
Requested about Mamdani’s calling on her to not pursue expenses, Katz didn’t reply reply straight however as a substitute praised the brand new mayor’s efforts to try to.deal with psychological well being considerations.
“It is a nightmare. We didn’t want police, we simply wanted medical transport. Once we referred to as 911 for an ambulance, we by no means might have imagined that we’d find yourself right here at the moment,” Chakraborty’s household mentioned in a press release.
“Jabez and our household had been secure in our residence till the NYPD arrived,” his household mentioned. “Now Jabez is recovering from a number of surgical procedures, handcuffed to a hospital mattress. He has a protracted, tough restoration forward. Now DA Katz needs to place him in jail. Hasn’t he suffered sufficient?”
‘We Have been Terrified’
Requested in regards to the expenses by THE CITY at an unrelated press convention earlier on Friday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who made reforming how the town responds to psychological well being emergencies one in all his central marketing campaign pledges — mentioned he had not spoken with Katz straight whereas repeating his place that Chakraborty shouldn’t be charged.
“No household ought to need to endure this sort of ache. What they want proper now could be care, dignity, and help,” Mamdani mentioned. “Jabez shouldn’t be prosecuted by the Queen’s district legal professional. His handcuffs needs to be eliminated, and he needs to be receiving the care that he wants.”
Chakraborty was shot inside his household’s residence after a member of the family referred to as 911 to report he was experiencing a psychological well being disaster. They requested for an ambulance and instructed a 911 dispatcher he was having a schizophrenic episode, saying he’d thrown glass on the wall however had no weapons and wasn’t violent. The caller sought “an “involuntary transport” to the hospital.
When two officers entered the house in Jamaica, Queens, Chakraborty picked up a giant kitchen knife and superior towards them, physique digital camera footage launched by the NYPD confirmed, whereas a member of the family tried to carry him again and defend him from officers.
Lower than 30 seconds after they entered the house, one of many cops fired 4 pictures, critically injuring Chakraborty.
Shortly after the taking pictures, Mamdani’s workplace launched a press release the place he praised “:the primary responders who put themselves on the road every day to maintain our communities secure.”
However 4 days later, Chakraborty’s household launched their very own assertion by means of the group DRUM, Desis Rising Up & Shifting, a bunch that had been strongly supportive of Mamdani’s candidacy, decrying the NYPD’s actions. After the taking pictures, the household mentioned, NYPD officers had seized their telephones and questioned them on their immigration standing whereas Jabez was nonetheless mendacity on the bottom.
“We didn’t name the police. As a substitute of medical responders, the NYPD arrived and shot our son a number of instances proper in entrance of us,” the assertion learn. “As our son was being shot, we had been terrified that what occurred to Win Rozario was going to occur to Jabez.” (Rozario was 19 years previous in 2024, when he was fatally shot by officers responding to a name for a psychological well being emergency after he superior towards them whereas holding a pair of scissors.)
Mamdani quickly visited Chakraborty within the hospital and asking the DA to not file expenses.
The taking pictures restored deal with Mamdani’s promise to vastly scale back the variety of police interactions with people experiencing psychiatric episodes by means of the formation of a brand new Division of Group Security. That division continues to be within the planning phases and particulars stay scant.
THE CITY reported this week that 86% of 911 psychological well being calls are routed to the NYPD regardless of the growth of B-HEARD, a program began underneath de Blasio.
This system is meant to ship psychological well being clinicians as a substitute of NYPD officers. Solely a small share of these calls had been dealt with by psychological well being clinicians, THE CITY discovered.
