Photo: College of Staten Island Athletics
The family of a Brooklyn man killed by police earlier this week is challenging the NYPD’s description of the death as a “suicide by cop situation” — calling on the department to release body camera footage of the fatal encounter. Eudes Pierre, a 26-year-old Crown Heights resident, was shot ten times on Eastern Parkway early Tuesday morning, after allegedly charging at police officers with a pink knife.
A spokesperson for the NYPD said that Pierre had called the police on himself and left behind a suicide note — a sign that he wanted officers to end his life.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Pierre’s mother, Marguerite Jolivert, spoke to reporters through tears, explaining that her son was in the throes of a mental health crisis. She accused police of rushing to pull the trigger instead of de-escalating the situation or calling crisis professionals to the scene.
“My son was sick. He had a mental disease,” said Jolivert, flanked by sobbing family members and friends. “He didn’t deserve to be killed like an animal.” Read more.
