Queens prosecutors brought charges Friday against a man who\u2019d been shot by police last month \u2014 over the objections of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and of family members who said the man needed an ambulance, not a confrontation with cops.<\/p>\n
Jabez Chakraborty, 22, pleaded not guilty and was held on $50,000 bail over his lawyer\u2019s objections. Chakraborty\u2019s lawyer said he is still bed-bound at Jamaica Hospital.<\/p>\n
The charges comes after police body-camera footage<\/a> released by the city shows he came at officers with a kitchen knife, despite his family\u2019s pleas for him to stop and the officers\u2019 commands for him to drop it before one of them shot him. The case has drawn attention<\/a> in part because the family has criticized how city workers handled their call for help when Chakraborty was acting erratically, and Mamdani has said Chakraborty needs mental health care, not prosecution.<\/p>\n Chakraborty appeared before Judge Jessica Earle Gargan remotely from his hospital bed, where he is still recovering.<\/p>\n Fahd Ahmed, director of Desis Rising Up and Moving, an advocacy organization for the city\u2019s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities, said Chakraborty\u2019s relatives told him about the scheduled appearance late Thursday. Ahmed said the family was \u201canxious\u201d about the process and didn\u2019t seem to know many details.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that he is even being considered for arraignment and being [at the time] potentially charged is, again, retraumatizing when the family literally called the EMS,\u201d Ahmed said, referring to emergency medical workers.<\/p>\n