A Bronx man fatally shot by police as he held his mother in a chokehold while claiming he had a knife to her neck dared cops to shoot him before a single bullet brought him down, harrowing body camera footage shows.
“Do it! I dare you! I f—ing dare you!” Michael Dotel, 30, yelled at NYPD Officers Alex Morgese and Mohammad Hossain as they responded to an assault in progress inside Dotel’s 13th-floor apartment on Creston Ave. near Minerva Place in Bedford Park on Dec. 23.
When the officers arrived they were met with a locked door before Dotel’s girlfriend pulled open the door and ran down the hallway screaming, the newly released footage shows.
Officer Morgese has a Taser in his hand as he enters the small apartment but quickly switches to his gun as Dotel keeps his arm around his mother’s neck, the video shows.
“She’s gonna get it!” Dotel screams at Officer Morgese. “Shoot me! Shoot me! Right now. Do it! Do it!”
While a knife isn’t seen in the video, Morgese asks Dotel about it and orders him to drop it.
“Where’s the knife? Drop the knife!” Morgese orders.
“I got the knife!” Dotel screams back a moment before his mother falls limp and Morgese shoots him from five feet away, the video shows.
Dotel was shot in the head. Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital but he couldn’t be saved. A large kitchen knife Dotel used was recovered at the scene.
Just before police arrived, Dotel had slashed his girlfriend, who was caught on camera running from the apartment, cops said. Dotel’s mother wasn’t seriously hurt.
At the time of the shooting NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said that Morgese “saved a life” by shooting Dotel.
“These officers were met with a chaotic fast moving situation but they had great composure,” Chell said.
Dotel’s stepfather, who witnessed the fatal exchange, agreed.
“One shot. Single bullet,” the stepfather, who wished not to be named, said in December. “If (the cop) wouldn’t have done that, my wife would be dead … He was using her as a human shield. It happened. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did…. The cops are not at fault on this one.”
Chell said cops had gone to the apartment on domestic violence calls before — but that Dotel had no documented mental health history with the NYPD.
Attorney General Letitia James’ office is investigating the shooting to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the officers, as required by law in such incidents.
Both cops joined the force in 2021 and have no civilian complaints filed against them, according to the website 50a.org.
