NEW YORK (AP) — Footage of two New York City police officers opening fire at a subway station as they confronted a man holding a knife shows they shot at him as he was standing still, his arms by his side and his back to a train.

In the days since Sunday’s shooting, police officials have repeatedly emphasized that the officers fired after Derell Mickles “charged” at one of them, and when their attempts to deescalate the situation and use Tasers had failed — leaving them with little choice but to resort to deadly force to protect themselves and passengers.

The footage, uploaded to the NYPD’s YouTube page Friday, offers a different view of the shooting that not only wounded Mickles but also a bystander, who was hit in the head with a stray bullet. Gregory Delpeche, 49, was sent to the hospital in critical condition, where doctors had to open up his skull to reduce brain swelling, according to his family.

“The NYPD’s version of events is a gross mischaracterization of what we see on that video,” said Nick Liakas, an attorney representing Delpeche’s family. “There was no need for any bullets to fly in the subway station, especially in a setting where the officers put innocent bystanders at risk. And it resulted in Gregory getting shot in the back of the head.”

Police officials defended the officers in a news conference Wednesday.

“It happened because an individual decided to enter our subway system. He refused to drop that weapon, after repeated orders by the officers. And then he advanced towards the officers while he was armed,” the NYPD interim commissioner, Thomas Donlon, said.

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell described the shooting as a “tragic situation” and said “we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of people on that train.”

As Chell described it, Mickles jumped a turnstile at a subway station in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn a little after 3 p.m. Sunday. The two officers asked the 37-year-old Brooklyn native to leave, and he did, but Mickles was seen unfolding a knife on his way out.

When Mickles returned to the station a few minutes later, the officers followed him up the steps onto the elevated platform. In the body camera footage, they tell Mickles to drop the knife. Mickles, standing with his hands behind his back says, “I’m not dropping it, you’ll have to shoot me.” The officers repeatedly implore him to show them his hands. He tells them to leave him alone.

When a train pulls into the station, Mickles backs onto it. The officers follow him on. They repeatedly say “put it down” and then fire their Tasers, which have little effect, embedding in Mickles’ T-shirt before he rips them out and walks off the train.

Now on the platform, Mickles holds the knife with the blade open. The officers follow him out from different doors, and Mickles runs in the direction of one officer, who runs backwards.

When the officers pull their guns, Mickles comes to a complete stop, his hands by his sides, in front of the train. As Mickles turns his head slightly to the left, they fire multiple shots. Mickles falls into train while the passengers inside flee.

In Chell’s telling on Wednesday, he said: “Mr. Mickles charged one of the officers and then turned around and the other officer was standing there within approximately 5 feet. It was at this time they both discharged their weapons.”

In addition to Mickles and Delpeche, one of the officers was wounded in the shooting. A 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound.

Earlier Friday, Mickles, appearing remotely from his hospital bed, pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, menacing an officer, weapons possession and evading his subway fare. The judge set his bail at $200,000.

Mickles’ lawyer, Jonathan Fink, said his client is in “very bad shape” and unable to walk.

“It seems there’s a strong argument there was disproportionate force used by the police in this case,” said Fink, who had not yet seen the video.

Police reform advocates condemned the shooting.

“This horrific event that endangered dozens of transit users didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Loyda Colon, of the group Communities United for Police Reform, said in a statement Friday. “It happened because the mayor has invested in flooding officers into our subway system and communities to criminalize mental illness and poverty, rather than in making transit, housing, and services affordable and available to New Yorkers.”

Earlier in the week, Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, said he’d seen the videos and that the officers should be commended for showing a “great level of restraint.”

“I saw the steps those police officers implemented,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Over and over again, trying to reason with the perpetrator. And so some people said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t be enforcing fare evasion.’ No. This is not a city where any and everything goes.”

After the footage was released, his office released a statement that was less effusive, noting that the NYPD’s initial review found that shooting took place after Mickles “brandished a dangerous weapon and put officers’ lives at risk.”

“While the formal review continues, and out of respect for that process, I will avoid commenting any further,” Adams said.

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Associated Press writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

Since the devastating fire that broke out at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France on April 15, 2019, an enormous restoration project has been underway. 

In addition to rebuilding, archaeologists have explored the site, unearthing thousands of ancient findings. 

When artifacts are discovered, answers aren’t always uncovered with them. It often takes more research and investigation in order to grasp a better understanding of the story behind the find.

12-YEAR-OLD BOY STUMBLES UPON STUNNING ANCIENT FIND WHILE WALKING DOG IN ENGLAND: ‘RELATIVELY RARE’

Back in 2022, archaeologists discovered two lead sarcophagi under the transept crossing of the cathedral. Sarcophagi were containers used to hold a coffin. They were reserved for the burying of wealthy individuals and leaders. 

One of the deceased was quickly identified as Antoine de La Porte, a canon of the cathedral who died in 1710. 

The other remained unknown, but has recently been hypothesized to be the famous French poet, Joachim du Bellay, who died in 1560, according to a September 17, 2024, news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

A new hypothesis names the previously unidentified man as Joachim du Bellay. (Bridgeman via Getty Images)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER UNIQUE ARTWORK IN ENGLAND DATING BACK TO THE EARLY 2ND CENTURY

Du Bellay was believed to have been buried in the cathedral beside his uncle at the request of his family, but his grave was never found.

Éric Crubézy, professor of biological anthropology at Toulouse 3 University and research director and his team put forth the hypothesis based on evidence such as the fact that an autopsy revealed that the individual suffered from bone tuberculosis and chronic meningitis, which was rare at the time, and parallels the medical history of du Bellay. 

Additionally, the femur structure of the man was in line with someone who spent a lot of time riding horses, according to Euronews. This detail, again, is in line with the life of du Bellay. 

In 2022, archaeologists discovered two lead sarcophagi during excavations.  (Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)

RARE ANCIENT CELTIC ARTIFACT UNEARTHED IN POLAND, 2,300-YEAR-OLD METAL OBJECT EXCAVATED FROM CHARCOAL PIT

“He matches all the criteria of the portrait: he is an accomplished horseman, suffers from both conditions mentioned in some of his poems, like in ‘The Complaint of the Despairing,’ where he describes ‘this storm that blurs (his) mind,’ and his family belonged to the royal court and the pope’s close entourage,” Crubézy said, per La Croix International. 

Even though there is evidence to support the hypothesis, there are still researchers who have their doubts. 

“Certain elements do not support this hypothesis: isotope analysis of the teeth indicates that the individual lived in the Paris region or Rhône-Alpes until he was 10 years old. However, we know that Joachim du Bellay grew up in Anjou,” Christophe Besnier, an INRAP archaeologist and excavation leader, told the outlet. “Additionally, just because his grave wasn’t found during the 1758 excavations of the Saint-Crépin chapel, doesn’t mean his remains weren’t there.”

Notre-Dame Cathedral continues to be under renovation ahead of a December 2024 reopening.  (Luis Boza/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Since the fire of 2019, there have been more than 100 burials identified, and 80 excavated in the cathedral, according to INRAP. 

More than 50 archaeologists have been on site, working on the 14 operations that have taken place, the source notes. 

As of now, reopening of the cathedral is planned for December 2024. 

At UNSC, UN rights chief says Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah devices violated international law and could be a war crime.

A senior United Nations official has told the Security Council that further violence between Israel and Iran-aligned groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon risked igniting a far more damaging conflict.

“We risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far,” UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the 15-member council on Friday, which met about attacks this week on Hezbollah.

“It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy,” she said. “I also strongly urge member states with influence over the parties to leverage it now.”

As its war in Gaza nears one year old, Israel killed at least 14 people and wounded 66 in an air raid on the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday.

The Israeli military claimed that a top Hezbollah commander and other senior figures in the Lebanese movement were among the dead, and pledged to conduct a new military campaign until it secures the area around the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah has not confirmed the deaths of any commanders on Friday.

Israel’s air raid followed two days of attacks in which Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded, killing 37 people and wounding thousands. Those attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told the Security Council that the attack on Hezbollah communications devices violated international law and could constitute a war crime.

Turk said it was “difficult to conceive” how the attacks on Hezbollah’s communications devices “could possibly conform with the key principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, under international humanitarian law”.

He added that he was “appalled” by the attacks using communication devices.

“This has unleashed widespread fear, panic and horror among people in Lebanon, already suffering in an increasingly volatile situation since October 2023 and crumbling under a severe and longstanding economic crisis. This cannot be the new normal,” he said.

Turk called for an independent, thorough and transparent investigation and for those who ordered and carried out the attacks to be held to account.

Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council that the US expects all parties to comply with international humanitarian law and take all reasonable steps to minimise harm to civilians, especially in densely populated areas.

“It is imperative that even as facts emerge about the latest incidents – in which I reiterate, the United States played no role – all parties refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war.”

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in October in support of Gaza, where Israel is waging a devastating war that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians.

Israel, which last fought an all-out war against Hezbollah 18 years ago, has said it will use force if necessary to ensure its citizens can return to their homes in northern Israel.