Jabez Chakraborty’s Arraignment from Hospital Bed Sparks Outrage; Family Demands DA Katz Drops Charges

UsaNewsOnline.Com Desk, New York – Following the video arraignment of 22-year-old Jabez Chakraborty, who was shot by NYPD Officers on January 26, Julie Chakraborty, the mother of Jabez Chakraborty, issued a statement from his family:
“This is a nightmare. We didn’t need police, we just needed medical transport. When we called 911 for an ambulance, we never could have imagined that we would end up here today.
Jabez and our family were safe in our home until the NYPD arrived. Now Jabez is recovering from multiple surgeries, handcuffed to a hospital bed. He has a long, difficult recovery ahead. Now, DA Katz wants to put him in prison. Hasn’t he suffered enough? Locking him up will destroy his life. All we want is for him to be able to heal.
This has all been so traumatizing. We witnessed Jabez be shot right in front of us. Then the NYPD interrogated us about our immigration status, took our phones, and kept us from seeing him. Now Jabez is being unjustly charged with a crime and we are being forced to pay bail to the system that keeps hurting him.
DA Katz must have no heart at all. Why does she want to torture a young man who has already suffered so much? Our family is demanding that she drop these charges against Jabez and that he be unshackled as he recovers.”
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“DA Katz’s rushed, secret indictment of Jabez and request that the Court remand him are both unnecessary and unconscionable,” said Gideon Oliver, Jabez Chakraborty’s civil attorney. “Jabez needs real help – not being locked up. We call on her to do the right thing and drop the charges.”
“The system has failed Jabez on every level — and now, rather than supporting his recovery, the DA is further punishing him,” said Fahd Ahmed, Executive Director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM). “This is the exact opposite of what Jabez needs and deserves: quality health and mental healthcare. Jabez was not a threat to his family – he was safe at home until the NYPD arrived. What purpose does it serve to punish someone who needed medical and mental health care, and got bullets instead? This shooting was not an isolated incident: it’s a devastating example of how our systems repeatedly fail the most vulnerable New Yorkers.”
“We all know that the presence of armed police can trigger distress, yet the City continues to place the NYPD at the center of mental health response, and then blame the victims of their violence,” said Justice Committee Executive Director Loyda Colón. “Jabez needed care and was safe in his home, just like Win Rozario, Mohamed Bah, Iman Morales, and too many others. This is the horrifying, yet predictable result of elected officials prioritizing the NYPD over the lives and well-being of New Yorkers, while prosecutors like DA Katz criminalize and cage the most vulnerable among us in the name of ‘public safety,’ ignoring the well documented fact that incarceration results in deteriorating mental health and increased developmental harm. DA Katz must drop the charges, and Mayor Mamdani must stop defending police-led models and act on his campaign promises to remove the NYPD from mental health response.” Press release.