The mayor said police would disclose the contents of 911 calls and any video of the incident.

Police located Vassell who then, according to Monahan, "took a two-handed shooting stance, and pointed an object at the approaching officers".

Monahan said three plain clothed and one uniformed officer fired 10 shots, striking Vassell multiple times in the abdomen area at 4:45 p.m. EDT.

Kevin said he was with Vassell just before he was killed, that Vassell had been playing around with a piece of metal, fooling, like it was a gun.

Eric Vassell said Saheed suffered from bipolar disorder but was harmless.

Vassell was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Vassell was a familiar face in the neighborhood, according to the paper, known to be mentally ill and in the habit of picking up refuse items from the gutter to play with as toys.

"There must be a way to save this person than to kill them", his father, Eric, told the New York Post. They said they're not angry, but "hurt" that they say police didn't give him a warning to drop the pipe before opening fire. He echoed a common refrain: The officers should have known him well enough to not simply shoot him to death. The dad said cops could have handled the situation differently.

Vassell's parents and some community members expressed outrage at the shooting. On Thursday, lawmakers in NY passed a bill that would hold police officers to the same standards as probation officers and prison and jail guards, who are already barred, nationwide, from having sex with those over whom they hold power.

Three plainclothes officers and two in uniform responding to the calls encountered Vassell near the corner of Montgomery Street and Utica Avenue. The officers feared he had a gun, but he was found to have been holding a cellphone, Sacramento police have said.

Following the tragic shooting, scores of residents gathered at the scene to raise their voice against the officers' brutal response.

A few people shouted at the police, she said. There were reminders that this was 50 years to the day since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot to death in Memphis. Others spoke of wanting to riot. Later, residents could be heard shouting "black lives matter" and "stop killing us" at officers at the scene.

"For me, joining this lawsuit was an effort to defend the Constitution", the soldier told reporters this morning in a phone conference celebrating the case's conclusion. The officer appeared to shoot him in the neck, chest and right arm, Mr. Hinds said.

Hinds said that officer, joined by two other plainclothes officers who had been in the auto with him, tried to resuscitate the man.

The NYPD refused to comment on this allegation and confirm if the responding officers warned Vassell before firing. The names and races of the officers involved have not been released.