The family of a Big Apple straphanger who was shot in the head by NYPD cops during a wild “friendly fire” barrage of bullets on a Brooklyn subway train is calling out officers.
“It was reckless by the police,” said Greg Nougues, whose cousin, Gregory Delpeche, was wounded in the Sunday afternoon mishap that also left a cop, another bystander and an accused fare beater injured.
“It’s not fine for them to shoot like that into a train,” said Nougues, 57, of New Jersey. “They shouldn’t be firing while civilians are present. For $2 and 90 cents?”
Delpeche, who was on his way to his job at Woodhull Hospital, was hit in the head by one of nine bullets fired by a pair of cops who were trying to subdue a belligerent turnstile jumper on the L line on at the Sutter Avenue station in Brownsville around 3 p.m.
The suspect, 38-year-old Derrell Mickles, allegedly threatened the officers and pulled a knife on the cops, but two blasts from their Tasers failed to stop him — so they opened fire.
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press briefing Sunday night that the officers didn’t realize Mickles had been hit until they started slapping the cuffs on him on the floor of the train.
Then they realized one of the cops had been hit in the armpit — as were Delpeche and a woman.
Adding insult to injury, the NYPD said Monday that the knife allegedly wielded by Mickles had been stolen from the crime scene while cops were dealing with the fallout from the friendly fire blunder.
A police spokesman told The Post on Monday that while the incident was under review by the NYPD Force Investigation Division, the two officers had not been placed on modified duty.
The names of the two cops have not been released and the wounded officers is expected to recover.
Mickles was charged Monday with attempted assault in the first degree, theft of services, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
“Greg wasn’t even in the same train car when he was shot,” Nicholas Liakas, an attorney representing Delpeche, told The Post Tuesday. “He was one train car over when he was shot. You wonder, were the officers just spraying bullets?
“If the individual had a knife and was so close that officers feared for their lives, if he was close enough to be an immediate threat, how did you miss him so many times and shoot people in the next train car?
“He clearly wasn’t right on top of them based on the pattern of the ballistics,” Liakas said. “An innocent bystander on his way to work was shot in the head.”
According to Nougues, his cousin remains in critical condition at Kings County Hospital.
“He’s sedated,” he said of Delpeche. “He can move but he doesn’t have consciousness yet.”
In a statement Tuesday, NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry blamed Mickles for the whole thing.
“This is entire incident was caused by a dangerous repeat offender who brought a weapon into the subway system and used it to attack police officers,” Hendry said. “His actions forced our police officers to make difficult, split-second decisions in order to stop a potentially deadly threat.
“He is solely responsible for all of the harm caused in this case.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods and Craig McCarthy
