New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday that he does not believe the Queens district attorney should prosecute a mentally ill man who was shot by police after allegedly charging toward officers with a knife, Fox News reports. Mamdani argued that the man requires mental health care, not criminal penalties — a position that has sparked criticism for appearing to dismiss the risks officers faced during the encounter.
According to NYPD officials, 22-year-old Jabez Chakraborty wielded a large kitchen knife and sprinted at officers responding to an emergency call from his family on January 26. Police say they repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon and tried to calm the situation before one officer fired several rounds, striking Chakraborty, who was then taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The family had contacted 911 after Chakraborty began throwing glass inside their Briarwood home on Parsons Boulevard. Officers tried to contain him by closing a glass door between them and Chakraborty, but the NYPD says he forced it open and advanced with the knife. Officers claim they didn’t draw their weapons until seeing the blade. Following the shooting, police administered first aid and worked to stop his bleeding until paramedics arrived.
Family members, however, said they had asked for medical responders, not police, believing their son — who suffers from schizophrenia — needed immediate treatment. “We called for help,” the family said. “We called 911 for an ambulance to provide medical attention for our son, who was in emotional distress. We did not call the police. Instead of medical responders, the NYPD arrived and shot our son multiple times right in front of us.”
The Queens District Attorney’s Office is investigating, and reports suggest prosecutors are weighing possible attempted murder charges. But Mayor Mamdani, who reviewed the body camera footage, said in a news conference that Chakraborty needs “mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution.” Critics note that the mayor’s comments appear to preempt the investigation and downplay the potential threat to officers and others present during the incident.
“A person experiencing a mental health episode does not always have to be served first or exclusively by a police officer. It is important for us to have all of the options available,” Mamdani said. Yet his remarks come just days after he publicly thanked first responders for their bravery, saying police “encountered an individual wielding a knife.” The shift in tone has left some questioning whether the mayor is trying to balance political optics rather than address the incident with consistency.
Chakraborty’s family, meanwhile, accused Mamdani of insensitivity for initially praising the police who shot their son. “After all this, we saw Mayor Mamdani’s statement applauding the NYPD officers that shot our son, threatened and lied to us, and kept us from seeing our son for over 24 hours,” the family’s statement read, according to the outlet. “Why is the mayor applauding officers who recklessly almost killed our son in front of us?”