By Joshua Rhett MillerShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is being criticized for visiting a man in the hospital after he charged at a police officer with a knife.
Mamdani, who took office in January, visited Jabez Chakraborty on Tuesday, telling reporters at an unrelated news conference that he had "lived with schizophrenia for many years" prior to the shooting in his Queens home on January 26.
Chakraborty, 22, was shot by Officer Tyree White as he wielded a knife, according to body-worn camera footage released Tuesday by the New York Police Department. White and a second officer had responded to the man's residence after police got an emergency call about a person experiencing a mental health episode.
...The officer-involved shooting had been condemned by Chakraborty's relatives and critics who contend that officers cannot handle such situations, often proving too eager to open fire, the New York Times reported.
Chakraborty was hospitalized following the shooting, which is now being investigated by the NYPD's Force Investigation Division, the outlet reported.
Mamdani also suggested during Tuesday's news conference that Chakraborty not face criminal charges.
..."This situation underscores just how urgently we need a different and more effective mental health response system,” Mamdani told reporters. "Jabez needs mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution by a district attorney."
Some critics of Mamdani's visit suggested that NYPD officers would not be pleased with his stance.
"You got what you asked for, NYC," one conservative observer wrote on X. "Cops will flee. Good luck."
Mamdani's approach indicates "New York is doomed," another detractor insisted.
"Meanwhile, the officers who risked their lives to stop a dangerous attack get questioned," he wrote on X.
Entrepreneur Mario Nawfal also denounced Mamdani's visit on X, noting that the mayor "expressed condolences" to Chakraborty's family.
"Yep," Nawfal wrote late Tuesday. "NYC is still completely broken."
Relatives of Chakraborty said he is schizophrenic and that the presence of the officer likely made things worse, WABC reported.
"I'm sure if someone is going through any mental health crisis and they see an officer with a gun pointing at them, that that also is not necessarily going to de-escalate any situation that is happening," Simran Thind, a spokesperson for Chakraborty's family, told the station. "And that person's command is not going to de-escalate the situation."
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