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

Gunned down by NYPD while seeking care, Jabez is now being doubly punished with criminal charges while recovering from multiple gunshot wounds

New York, NY– 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.”

Additional Quotes

“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.”

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About the Justice Committee:

Since the 1980s, the Justice Committee (JC) has been dedicated to building a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City. The heart of our work is organizing and uplifting the leadership of families who have lost loved ones to the police and survivors of police violence. We empower our community to deter police violence, hold law enforcement accountable, and build people-led community safety through grassroots organizing campaigns, community empowerment, political education, our CopWatch program, and by developing safety mechanisms and projects that decrease reliance on police. By building solidarity with other anti-racist, immigrant and people of color-led organizations, the Justice Committee seeks to contribute to a broad-based movement for racial, social, and economic justice.

About Desis Rising Up and Moving:

DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving is a multigenerational, membership led organization of low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, workers and youth in New York City. Founded in 2000, DRUM has mobilized and built the leadership of thousands of low-income, South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives- from immigrant rights to education reform, racial justice, and worker’s justice.  Our membership of over 5,000 adults, youth, and families is multigenerational and represents the diaspora of the South Asian communities – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Guyana, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and beyond.  In over a decade, we have built a unique model of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean undocumented workers, women, and youth led organizing for rights and justice from the local to the global rooted in base building, leadership development, running short and long term campaigns to reform policies on all levels, strong cross-community alliances locally and nationally, and building democratic and mass participatory spaces.