Gothamist reports:
The family of Saheed Vassell, a man killed by the NYPD in 2018, is pleading with Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin to remove footage of Vassell’s final moments from Zeldin’s first major television advertisement.
Vassell’s family said the use of the video has caused his relatives “terrible pain and suffering.” A narrator tells the audience it is “looking at actual crimes caught on camera in Kathy Hochul’s New York,” before telling people to “vote like your life depends on it — it just might.”
But in the case of Vassell, 34, he wasn’t holding a gun. It was 2018, three years before Hochul became governor and he was in the middle of a mental health crisis on the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, , wielding what turned out to be a metal piece from a gas tank.
Read the full article. The clip is so violent that YouTube requires an age-check to view it.
Totally unacceptable use by Lee Zeldin’s campaign of Saheed Vassell’s image. Also dishonest of the campaign, given that Vassell (who was unarmed) was killed by NYPD officers in 2018. https://t.co/6GEFw1knqT
— Julia Salazar (@JuliaCarmel__) September 19, 2022
Saheed was killed in my district and I join his family in demanding an apology from @leezeldin immediately.
You run your mouth a lot about law and order except when it comes to your BFF Donald Trump, the insurrection, or your own campaign, #XeroxZeldin. Don’t be quiet now. https://t.co/1uteTM8jwY
— Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie 米维 (@zellnor4ny) September 27, 2022
Saheed Vassell was killed by NYPD in 2018 on the streets of Crown Heights. He was wielding a metal pipe mistaken for a gun.
“Saheed was the victim here, but to Zeldin and his campaign, he was simply a Black man whose image could be manipulated.”https://t.co/NcvRkdnt6a
— Gothamist (@Gothamist) October 26, 2022