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Double Homicide Fatally Shot by Police Officers Share full article Log in

Man Sought in Double Homicide

Fatally Shot by Police Officers
Investigators said the man, who was killed in Brooklyn on
Wednesday morning, had fatally shot a father and son after an
argument over noise complaints.

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The police said they tried to persuade the man to drop a knife before he rushed at them. Stephanie Keith for
The New York Times

By Maria Cramer and Lola Fadulu

Nov. 1, 2023, 1:24 p.m. ET

New York City police officers shot and killed a man on Wednesday
morning, three days after investigators said he was believed to
have killed a father and son inside a Brooklyn apartment building
during an argument over noise.

The police had been searching for the man, Jason Pass, 47, for more
than two days after the shooting deaths of the two men. The father
was Bladimy Mathurin, 47, and the police named the son as Mode
Chinwai, 27. Before the shooting, the city had received calls from
Mr. Pass’s apartment complaining about noises above.

When the police arrived at 11:39 p.m. on Sunday, they found Mr.
Mathurin and his son lying in the hallway of the fourth floor of the
apartment on Brooklyn Avenue with gunshot wounds to the head
and torso. They were pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

“It was a particularly vicious double shooting,” said Jeffrey

Maddrey, the chief of the New York Police Department, during a
news conference on Wednesday.

Early Wednesday morning, police officers used license plate

readers to track Mr. Pass’s vehicle. They found the black car at
about 7 a.m. parked near Bay 44 Street and Bath Avenue close to
Gravesend, a largely working class neighborhood.

When they approached, the driver, later identified as Mr. Pass, ran
out holding a six-inch knife, the police said.

Officers chased him to 187 Bay 44th Street, where they stopped him
and “contained him,” said John Chell, the department’s chief of
patrol, at a separate news conference.

The officers talked to Mr. Pass for about 15 minutes “doing

everything they could” to persuade him to drop the knife, Chief
Chell said.

Mr. Pass told the officers that what was happening was “not going
to end well,” Chief Chell said. Then, he sprinted at the officers,
pointing the knife at them.

“Our officers were forced to defend themselves,” Chief Chell said.

“He didn’t give us a choice.”

Mr. Pass was struck three times in the chest and once in the leg,
the police said. Mr. Pass died of his injuries at Lincoln Hospital.

The police said that they were still investigating how many officers
were involved and whether more than one officer struck Mr. Pass.

The police did not immediately provide body camera footage of the
episode and said the investigation continued.

Late Wednesday morning, crime scene tape cut off three blocks in
Gravesend. Over 20 yellow evidence markers dotted the street,
showing where shell casings and evidence had been recovered.

Police officers were standing around a black Honda S.U.V. whose

driver-seat door was still flung open.

Neighbors said that children had been crossing the street to get to
school and commuters were heading to work when they saw the
police talking to Mr. Pass before shots rang out.

Wesley Parnell contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Maria Cramer is a reporter on the Metro desk. Please send her tips, questions and
complaints about the New York police and crime at maria.cramer@nytimes.com . More
about Maria Cramer
Lola Fadulu is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk of The Times. She was
part of a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for coverage of New York
City’s deadliest fire in decades. More about Lola Fadulu

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