Fledgling Mayor Zohran Mamdani is already facing blowback for his tardy, halfhearted response to back-to-back police shootings – including friction with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, The Post has learned.
Mamdani – who backed off his ardent “defund the police” stance during the mayoral campaign – waited 16 hours before he released a statement addressing the bloody pair of police-involved shootings, despite being briefed by Tisch right after each unfolded roughly six hours apart Thursday.
The murky Friday morning statement further stoked fury by emphasizing an “internal investigation” would follow the shootings, which some insiders believed implied wrongdoing by NYPD officers, when such probes are par the course, police sources said.
“I know many are eager for answers,” he wrote on X. “The NYPD is conducting an internal investigation — I will work with Commissioner Tisch to ensure this is as thorough and swift as possible.”
A visibly unhappy Tisch was spotted storming out of City Hall later Friday morning after meeting with administration officials while Mamdani was trying to defend his late response to reporters, multiple sources said.
“I take it very seriously the language that I use, and I think that in a situation such as this, you have to be very intentional in what you share,” Mamdani said during an unrelated event at Brooklyn College, where he handed out free tickets to the “Under the Radar” Festival ” theater festival.
The mayor just this week rushed to the scenes of two 5-alarm fires in Queens and The Bronx and delivered updates on each of the blazes alongside FDNY officials.
But the mayor didn’t make it to either of the harrowing life-or-death incidents Thursday, the first of which erupted just before 5:30 p.m. when a bloodied madman using cracked piece of a toilet as a makeshift blade barricaded himself in an eighth-floor room in Brooklyn Methodist Hospital with an elderly patient and a security guard.
Cops used Tasers on the blade-wielding patient — Michael Lynch, 62, a former NYPD officer who resigned in the 1990s — several times during a minutes-long back-and-forth in the blood-smeared room, police officials said.
The stun weapons weren’t effective, prompting the cops to use their guns, officials said. Lynch was later pronounced dead.
The second shooting unfolded at roughly 11 p.m. when cops on patrol in Manhattan were flagged down at the scene of an apparent road rage incident.
A motorist — 37-year-old Dmitry Zass, sources said — then walked out of a BMW, apparently with a gun in his hand, according to officials.
Cops opened fire and struck Zass, who was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Zass’ weapon turned out to be an imitation Sig Sauer handgun, according to a photo released by the NYPD.
Sources said Zass’ parents had called 911 before the run-in to report he was attacking his father with a gun. The parents got an order of protection against Zass the same day as the shooting, source said.
Details of both police-involved shootings were known to Mamdani for hours before he finally posted on X at 9:44 a.m.
“These tragedies are painful, whether they take place steps from our home or miles away. They are a reminder of the immense work that must be done to deliver genuine public safety — work Commissioner Tisch and I are undertaking together every day,” he wrote.
Sources familiar with how the day unfolded bemoaned Mamdani’s delayed vagaries, pointing out that NYPD top brass had been in constant contact with City Hall — including Mamdani, First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and his staff, and the communications team — providing real-time updates with photos and readouts of how the events unfolded.
One source was baffled by Mamdani’s remark about “genuine public safety.”
“I don’t know what else would be ‘genuine public safety’ other than protecting an elderly patient and a security guard from a person with a sharp weapon,” the source said.
Mamdani’s emphasis on the internal investigation also drew befuddlement, as they are routine when it comes to police-involved shootings.
“When the NYPD holds a press conference for an officer involved shooting, we always provide preliminary information to make clear that the Force Investigation Division will be handling the investigation,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “FID always investigates these incidents and we always state this.”
Tisch’s own statement on the incidents Friday read as a backhanded rebuke to Mamdani’s weak-sauce response.
She emphasized the cops’ bravery saving innocent lives.
“Officers were engaged in two police-involved shootings, and there is every indication that their actions were nothing short of heroic,” the commissioner posted on X at noon, after her City Hall meeting.
While some sources recounted seeing an unhappy Tisch walking out of City Hall, another who saw her following the meeting said she did not appear upset.
The brouhaha came just eight days into Mamdani’s tenure, and quickly drew comparison to his favorite living former mayor Bill de Blasio’s early stumbles with the NYPD.
“Week two and Mamdani has already betrayed the cops, this is his de Blasio moment,” one former City Hall staffer said.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation released a statement that it’d probe the road rage shooting, as it “assesses every incident” in which police may have caused a death.
— Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Hannah Fierick
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