A naked man standing on a fire escape and, later, a storefont, fell to his death after a police officer stunned him with a Taser. Based on video (below) and witness reports, Iman Morales, 35, was wielding a fluorescent light bulbs at cops who tried to get close.
According to the Post, Morales was yelling from the fire escape at 491 Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. When police asked him to come down, he "climbed down to a ledge above a metal roll-down storefront cover" and starting waving the long light bulb. The Daily News reports a witness as saying, "When the police came, he was screaming, 'You're gonna kill me and I'm gonna take everyone with me. I'm gonna die and you're gonna die with me.'"
After he continued to ignore the police order, one officer fired his stun gun, apparently per orders from his boss. WNBC reports a witness saw Morales freeze and fall "on his head on the sidewalk." Another witness told the NY Times, "It was a dead man's fall." The Post also has a distressing gallery of images showing Morales outside the building, being Tasered, falling and on the ground.
Morales was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he later died. He had rented an apartment on the third floor of the building. His mother had called 911, finding him "out of control" (she believed he stopped taking his medication). When police went to his apartment, the Daily News reports he "crept nude onto the fire escape and tried to enter a neighbor's fourth-floor window when police forced their way into his apartment." That neighbor said, "He tried to get into my window. He banged. He said, 'Let me in! Let me in!' But no way I'm letting a naked man into my apartment." Another witness said that his mother had been yelling, "No! No! Don't hurt him! He's sick."
The NYPD is investigating the incident; this past summer, the NYPD started to arm police officers with Tasers, as a way to avoid shootings. The Times notes, "Community activists held a news conference after Mr. Morales’s death, urging neighbors not to prejudge the police and urging the authorities to fully investigate." However, City Councilman Peter Vallone did say, “My first take is that while I’m sure there are no experts out there on how to handle a crazy naked man with a weapon on top of a ledge, I’m also sure this wasn’t the right way."
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Horrendous that it had to end with a fatality. I'm sure they could have coerced him down eventually without making him fall on his head.
Wza
New
York
Pricks &
Dicks
FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'
what is wrong with NYPD, he was naked and had no hidden weapons. what is really wrong with these cops???
ixvnyc
Well, NYPD stated the obvious: they screwed up.
It's pretty disturbing to see how some Ghotamist commenters are ready to defend any action by NYPD, no matter how obviously wrong it is. This is a special brand of losers, I think. Seems like they just want the cops to arrest and murder off the rest of the humanity, so that being a loser can be a bit more bearable to them.
There is a name for that sickness: misanthropy.
moocowtoo
Statement released by the NYPD, they did screw up:
#10 - You SEE The police guys right under the dude. He could have hurt the police. He could have went back into the apartment building and hurt the tenants. The dude was a loose canon. If he had broken of the end of the flourescent light and thrown the thing like a spear at someone impaling their asses then you'd be like "why didn't the police do anything?"
Mr Mel
Does an officer need instruction or permission to use the damn thing? Who decided when to use the taser? There are many more questions to be answered.
Rocknrope
Did the fluorescent bulb light up when he was tased, like Uncle Fester? That would've been a sight to see.
dirty hipster
I hope the NYPD uses as much care when dealing with the drunks in downtown manhattan on a fri/sat night.
Kojak
Talk about a colossal fuck up. Nice work NYPD.
jibbly
Watching the video, it's clear that one of the officers could have caught the guy or at least cushioned the fall a bit.
The NYPD is on a roll this year!
Phineas Gage
This is what happens when you put stupid people in charge of safety.
woodendesigner
Leave it to the NYPD to find a way to kill a guy with a non lethal weapon. When a naked man is waving a light bulb and you are wearing body armor, I don't think you are in any real danger. It really amazes me that there are so many stories of cops doing stupid things lately.
sarahlucy
jeez, this happened just down the street from me. this story, coupled with the one from last week or the week before about the cop hitting the young girl...what the fuck is up with the cops in bed stuy. jesus christ.
BotanistPrime
For real. FUCK COPS.
RDR105
Fuck the NYPD.. serioussly are this guys human beings? 4 policeman dressed up for a riot tasering a mentally ill person standing on a 2nd floor?? WTF!
NannyState
The police have never known how to deal with the mentally ill even though a huge of amount of their daily workload is just that. I often wonder if these scenes aren't deliberate, if the cops see these situations as opportunities to "clean up the genepool". It would be useful for a psychologist to thoroughly interview those cops afterwards and get to the root of this vicious brutality.
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A naked man standing on a fire escape and, later, a storefont, fell to his death after a police officer stunned him with a Taser. Based on video (below) and witness reports, Iman Morales, 35, was wielding a fluorescent light bulbs at cops who tried to get close. 
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