Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect photo.
QUEENS, N.Y. – Today, pastor’s son Jabez Chakraborty is recovering in a New York City hospital after being shot in his home Jan. 26 by a New York City police officer.
As seen on the officer’s bodycam footage, Jabez is holding a knife near his mother when he is shot and then collapses on the family’s couch, injured from four bullet wounds.
“Drop the knife! Drop the knife! Put it on the ground!” Officer Tyree White had yelled seconds earlier.
“They told me, ‘Tell your son to cooperate,’” Hector Chakraborty, pastor since 2020 of First Bangla Baptist Church in Queens, told Baptist Press. “I said, ‘Talk to him nice and he will listen.’ These are things that happen in the movies and these are happening in my home!”
The situation had escalated in perhaps one second from calm to chaos. Jabez’ sister Naomi, who serves in the Air Force Reserves, had called 911 for an ambulance at her mom Juli’s request. Julieta had been unable to comfort him and Jabez, who has schizophrenia, had thrown four water glasses at the kitchen wall.
In a recording of the 911 call, Naomi tells the dispatcher Jabez was not violent and had no weapons but had thrown four glasses against the wall. She requests an ambulance instead of police.
The situation had calmed by the time two police officers knocked. It’s standard procedure that NYPD also is called out when an ambulance is requested for involuntary transport. The police had arrived first.
As his mom was inviting the officers into the living room, Jabez was opening a drawer to pick up a knife (to make breakfast, his father told BP).
White’s bodycam shows Jabez turn at the sound of the officers’ arrival. He dashes toward the officers, knife in his hand.
“Drop the knife! Drop the knife!”
As Jabez crossed the small living room, White retreated to the other side of the vestibule door and closed it. Jabez managed to open it a crack, but then retreated to the center of the room, still clutching the knife.
“Drop the knife! Drop the knife! Put down the knife!”
Four gunshots later, followed by life-saving measures by two officers, Jabez was transported to a nearby hospital and, in handcuffs and leg shackles, placed on a ventilator.
Chakraborty, whose illness causes hallucinations, probably was both fearful and angry, Pastor Hector told Baptist Press.
“This matter has now garnered the attention of the political leadership in New York City,” said Frank Williams, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New York, and pastor of Bronx Baptist Church and Wake-Eden Community Baptist Church. “As a result, it is shining a spotlight on how mentally ill persons should be handled when they are experiencing a mental health episode. It is my hope that the new administration along with medical professionals and the NYPD will be able to develop a better system of response in such circumstances to prevent tragic outcomes.
“I have talked with Pastor Hector several times and have tried to reassure him that despite what it looks like right now, God’s grace will see his family through this harrowing experience,” Williams told Baptist Press. “Pastor Hector and his wife serve the Queens community well.
“They are a part of our local associations, Metropolitan New York Baptist Association and Global Baptist Alliance, and we are deeply concerned for the wellbeing of their son Jabez.”
First Bangla Baptist Church in Queens was the first church started (in 1994) for the Bangladesh Southern Baptist community. At least seven churches and several pastors and missionaries have come out of that church, including Hector Chakraborty, GBA Executive Director Romy Manansala told Baptist Press.
“As a state convention we have been praying for this family ever since this unfortunate incident occurred,” Williams continued. “We will continue to stand in prayerful and in public support of Pastor Hector and his family.”
The Chakraborty story was years in the unfolding. Jabez started exhibiting schizophrenic symptoms in junior high school. In typical South Asian fashion, little was said and even to trusted friends, not everything was shared.
“It can be hard for people with schizophrenia to talk with other people,” according to the Mayo Clinic’s website. “The answers people with schizophrenia give to questions may not be related to what’s being asked. Or questions may not be answered fully.
“… People with schizophrenia may not want to follow instructions. They may move in ways that are not typical or not appropriate to the social setting.”
Jabez normally is calm, quiet, very smart, and doesn’t talk much, but things like seeing a fly or mouse or changes in his normal routine affect him, Pastor Hector said. “In fear [the object] becomes like an adversary, and sometimes he wants something but he can’t express it.”
Jabez aced high school two years early and began college courses, but then the pandemic hit and he was forced to Zoom, which didn’t work for him, his father said. He got a job at Fed Ex, but lost it. He started driving an Uber, but was sent out on perhaps just one call a day, by dispatchers who knew his medical history. His depression grew and one day last December he drank bleach.
His family joined him at the hospital, where he waited 14 hours for a room. A short-term stay in a psychiatric unit was supposed to turn into a long-term stay, but didn’t because of holiday schedules and staffing.
When police arrived this time, it was with knowledge of the previous call.
When Jabez charged out of the kitchen, police saw the knife, the mother within striking distance, and stopped Jabez the way they’re trained.
“Shoot to stop” is the only protocol police officers are given to quench hostile activity, a police officer from Queens told Baptist Press.
Pastor Hector believes it could have been handled differently.
“These cops are trained but my son did not pull a gun on them,” he said. “They could have used a taser. These guys are six feet tall and built for wrestling. So many things could have been done.”
Jabez sank to a couch when he was shot. Officers pulled him to the floor, where enough blood gushed out of his chest, groin, legs and more that the family’s seven bath towels couldn’t hold it all, the father said. Today he’s recovering.
As seen in the police video, White, while still yelling “Drop the knife!” stopped shooting when Jabez sank to the couch.
The family was told to expect his arrest. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani first praised the police officers, then said the event showed the need for someone other than NYPD to be called to mental health situations, thus fulfilling one of his campaign promises. He said he didn’t want Jabez arrested.
NYPD provided a video report of the event to the news media. It states, “The department’s Force Investigation Division conducts a thorough investigation,” which “can require as much as a year or longer to complete.” See the full report, including part of the body cam footage, here.
All the Chakraborty family wants is that their son heal and not go to jail.
Related posts:
North Carolina pastor arrested on sexual exploitation charges 
SBC DIGEST: Litton to address UM graduation; Ohio Baptists to sell Seneca Lake facility 
WORLDVIEW: Risk & opportunity in 2016 
More than 13,000 registered for Send Conference 
4 entity heads address messenger questions 
‘Jersey’ impacts Ohio & the world 
WEEK OF PRAYER: Prayers back home boost new Japan church 
IMB sex abuse prevention underway amid new report
