‘Saheed is no gunman’: hundreds protest in New York against police shooting

Demonstrators condemn killing of Saheed Vassell, who was wielding a metal pipe when he was shot nine times by police

Hundreds of people have marched through the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Crown Heights to protest against police for shooting an unarmed black man.

Saheed Vassell, 34, was shot and killed by police on Wednesday afternoon. The New York police department said it had received calls that a man was wielding a gun, but it turned out to be part of a welding torch.

People blocked the corner of Utica Avenue and Montgomery Street, where Vassell was shot, chanting: “no justice, no peace”. Vassell’s mother, Lorna Vassell, was among those to address the crowd.

“Saheed came from a good family, and they had no right to shoot him down the way they did, because Saheed is no gunman,” Vassell said on Thursday night. “They murdered my son and I want justice for him.”

Vassell would regularly hang out at the corner where he was shot, residents said, and was known to suffer from mental illness.

“I gave him a dollar the day before he was shot,” said Mavis Mayfield. “Everybody in the neighborhood knew him.”

Mayfield, 70, said she had lived on the block for more than 40 years. She said she was concerned for the male members of her family.

“I got my grandkids, I got my son, my nephew, I got to look out,” she said. “All the time I worry about them. I tell my grandson all the time: ‘If the police stop, then stop and put your hands in the air.’”

The NYPD released video footage on Thursday that showed Vassell pointing the metal pipe at people on the street, along with transcripts of 911 calls from people saying a man was carrying something that looked like a gun.

When police arrived on the scene Vassell “took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers”, the NYPD chief of department, Terence Monahan, said. Four police officers, two of whom Monahan said were not in uniform, opened fire.

On Friday police said the metal object Vassell was holding was the head of a welding torch. Vassell’s father, Eric Vassell, told the New York Times on Wednesday that his son had worked as a welder.

The New York City medical examiner’s office said on Thursday that Vassell was shot nine times, including one shot to the head and two to the chest. A number of Crown Heights residents at the rally said officers did not need to shoot Vassell fatally.

“They need to be retrained to shoot a body part, not to shoot to kill,” said Latitia Richardson, 45. “This is Crown Heights, not a third-world country.”

Richardson described the street where Vassell was killed as a “very safe block”. She said police needed to be more aware of the communities they serve.

“This is a guy that the cops see every day,” she said. “He is not a stranger to the community, he stands in the same place every day. So if you’re policing this community you would know him.”

Speakers at the rally on Thursday repeatedly demanded that the New York police department release the names of the officers who had shot Vassell, and called for them to be prosecuted.

“They need to lose their jobs and they need to be put in jail – the same as if someone kills a cop,” said Ramel Johnson, 38. “It’s become clear they have no respect for human life.”

After the rally, the crowd marched to the NYPD’s 71st precinct, around 1 mile (1.5km) west of where Vassell was shot, chanting and waving signs condemning the police. Many repeatedly called for Crown Heights residents not to call 911 in the event of an emergency because of the risk of black residents being shot.

When the group arrived at the precinct they found, to the bemusement of many, that police had placed metal barricades around the building, with dozens of officers guarding entry.

Undeterred, people continued to shout “Saheed”, along with a recurring chant of “We want names”.