Police shot an 18-year-old 11 times when he pointed a gun at them after a chase in Far Rockaway late on Saturday. Officers fired 14 shots in total, striking and killing Dashawn Vasconcellos after he ran away from cops who tried to question him for being in a park after hours.
The incident began when four cops in an unmarked patrol car confronted Vasconcellos and two other young men who were spotted leaving Bayswater Park at around 11:30 pm. Vasconcellos fled, and three of the cops gave chase — one on foot and the others in the car. When officers caught up to the teen on Bay 32nd Street near Beach Channel Drive about a half a block from the park, Vasconcellos apparently turned around and pointed a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun at the cops. When Vasconcellos allegedly refused to drop his weapon after repeated orders, police opened fire, striking him three times in the back, once in the chest, once in the right arm and the rest in the legs, according to the Post.
The tabloid reports that Vasconcellos had an arrest record for robbery and trespassing, though the Daily News says he didn't have a record. NY1 reports that the two other men — friends of Vasconcellos' who were apparently headed to a house party with the teen — were not arrested, though the Post reports that Derbie Michel, 18, and a minor whose name was withheld, were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. Leaner Cannon, the mother of Michel, said her son's friend only carried the gun for self-defense. “He kept it in his book bag; he’s just using it for protection,” she said. Neighbors claimed that Vasconcellos — who wanted to become an R&B singer according to the Times and a rapper according to the Daily News — was "not that type of kid," and that the police used excessive force. “They got him in the back of the legs, the shoulder, the feet, it was all over,” said Theresa Boyke-Richards, a friend of the Vasconcellos family. “They told him to stop, he got nervous because the other two kids got thrown to the ground, so he got scared and started running.”
