Mayor Eric Adams has slammed New York City lawmakers for allowing a man who shot a New York City police officer late Tuesday back on the streets despite a pending firearms charge.
The comments from the mayor, who campaigned last year on cleaning up the city’s crime-ridden streets, came during a late-night address addressing the shooting at Lincoln Medical Center hospital, where 32-year-old officer Dennis Vargas was treated and released early Wednesday.
Why wasn’t he in jail?’ a visibly emotional Adams asked attendees at the middle-of-the-night presser at the Bronx hospital, referring to the now deceased Rameek Smith, the 25-year-old homeless man who shot Vargas around 10:45 pm last night.
Smith – who fired two shots during the late-night shootout in Claremont after Vargas and his partner approached him suspecting he was armed – died in the shootout.
During the presser, Adams and other city officials revealed Smith had been on the streets ahead of a planned sentencing for a prior gun arrest in March 2020 at a Brooklyn subway station, where he was charged with criminal possession of a weapon – charges that were pending at the time of his death.
Officials also added that Smith – who pleaded guilty to the weapons charge last December but was released while he awaited sentencing – was also convicted of robbery in 2016, for which he received five years’ probation.
Smith’s 2020 arrest – which transpired after officers saw him hopping a train turnstile – saw him violate his probation, Adams, 61, said Wednesday.
The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Rameek Smith, died after the Bronx shootout, which transpired around 10:45 pm Tuesday
In an emotionally charged address, the mayor demanded to know how ‘a perpetrator with multiple arrests’ was not behind bars for the earlier gun crime – despite his own District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s recent vow to jail fewer criminals.
‘For 20 months after the arrest, he remained on the streets,’ the mayor said of Smith, who cops said was shot in the head during the shootout, which saw Vargas shot in the arm. ‘He finally pled guilty in December 2021.’
He continued: ‘This is what we’re dealing with – a perpetrator with multiple arrests. The last arrest: criminal possession of a weapon.
‘How was he found to have been carrying the weapon? Jumped the turnstile at the subway station, and had the weapon on him,’ said Adams, who recently came under fire the arrest of a woman who was selling mangoes on at a Queens subway station.
‘People want to ask why am I cracking down on fare evasions? That’s why.’
Alvin – who has sought to eliminate pretrial detention except in ‘very serious cases’ – assumed office in January, a month after Smith was charged with the crime – however, his policies would see even fewer people behind bars before they are sentenced.
The shootout unfolded late Tuesday night, cops said Wednesday, after Vargas and his partner spotted and approached the suspect during their beat in the Bronx neighborhood of Claremont at roughly 10:45 pm.
Cops say Smith then began to run from the officers, spurring Vargas and his partner to give chase.
After about a block-and-a-half, police say Smith suddenly turned around and produced a handgun, letting off two shots at the officers – one of which struck Vargas.
The officers then returned fire, hitting Smith in the head, police said Wednesday. Cops added that the suspect was initially stopped because it appeared he was carrying a weapon.
Smith was arrested and then taken to a hospital, where he later died, officers said.
A 9 mm Glock was recovered at the scene, police said.
Dozens of officers and city officials – including Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and new Mayor Adams – gathered outside Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx early Wednesday to greet the wounded officer upon his release just four hours after the fatal shootout.
Vargas, an eight-year veteran of the force, smiled and waved to fellow officers and journalists after being wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair.
Following Vargas’ release early Wednesday, a presser was held at the hospital to address the shooting, where officials revealed Smith’s extensive criminal past and pending criminal case.
During the address – which saw both Sewell and Adams speak – the NYPD Commissioner slammed the city’s criminal justice system, calling Smith a ‘dangerous criminal who should not have been on the streets of the Bronx or anywhere else.’
She added: ‘We are extremely fortunate.’
Adams, who donned a suit emblazoned with the message ‘Stop Gun Violence’ at last week’s Met Gala, echoed Sewell’s sentiment in his own address, in which he slammed a city that allowed ‘a perpetrator with multiple arrests’ to acquire and carry a weapon on the streets of his city.
Who the hell will protect the innocent New Yorkers in this city? That’s the question we have to ask ourselves,’ Adams said, asking how local lawmakers allowed the crime occurred.
‘We took 2,600 guns off our streets,’ the mayor attested.
‘And the shooters of those guns are back on our streets just like this person here. Under normal circumstances, you would see a decrease in crime in this city. But the same criminals are continuing to come out on our streets, committing violence over and over again. The city deserves better.’
He went on: ‘Our city is divided. The overwhelming number of New Yorkers are the good guys. A small number of violent people are the bad guys.’
Added that the officer who was shot, as well as that officer’s father-in-law, also a cop, are both on the Bronx Borough public safety team, which target illegal guns.
‘You have family members in the city that are saying we’re tied of living in violence, and they are up against those who believe we should be spending our attention protecting criminals.
It is time for us to stop spending our energy protecting people who are committing crime and violence. This person has an extensive arrest history, he has made up his mind – he was not going to stop until he took the life of an innocent person.’
Chief of Detectives James Essig noted during the presser that the 9mm Glock recovered by police from the scene had been reported stolen out of Virginia last June.
Mayor Adams ran on a platform of increasing public safety and is under pressure to deliver after steep crime increases in 2021.
Felony assaults in New York City are up 19.9 percent and robberies are up 44.5 percent. Overall crime is up by 41.26 percent.