Adams hit for role in slay bust
Sources: Not his job to be part of subway suspect’s arrest
Mayor Adams came under unfriendly fire Wednesday for his role in a bizarre day of negotiations with a subway murder suspect, with critics suggesting the ex-cop needed to let the NYPD handle things.
Pointed questions were also raised about the role of a local minister with a checkered past in Tuesday’s talks before police finally put the cuffs on Andrew Abdullah, 25, wanted for the cold-blooded execution of a total stranger aboard a lower Manhattan train this past weekend.
Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead, a controversial figure with a pair of criminal convictions, said he brokered discussions about the suspect turning himself in to Adams. Cops arrested Abdullah after hours of fruitless back-and-forth about his fate, with the bishop making multiple phone calls trying to arrange the surrender before a gaggle of press.
NYPD sources and Whitehead said Adams was indeed willing to be present if it meant Abdullah would turn himself in.
“The mayor was in the area and was willing to participate if that’s what it took,” one police source familiar with the arrest said.
“Mayor Adams, we’ve been in contact all morning. He was ready to be here for the young man to be turned in,” Whitehead said shortly after Abdullah was walked into the 5th Precinct stationhouse in Chinatown.
Several sources who previously worked in the NYPD’s executive protection unit said a mayor having to be present for an accused murderer’s surrender raised a number of concerns. Such a move would create a precedent that could result in other high-profile criminals insisting on the mayor’s presence before turning themselves in, the sources said. The criminal record of the bishop seeking the mayor’s presence was also concerning, the ex-protection unit members said. Whitehead was released from prison in 2013 after serving five years for a $2 million identity theft scam.
“Yes it would [set a precedent],” a former executive protection unit member under Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The ex-protection unit member said Whitehead’s prior behavior would “raise red flags,” adding no one in the unit would complain because they’re not supposed to question the mayor.
“You’re voicing your concerns to deaf ears,” he said. “Nobody is going to say anything about it, unless something goes wrong, God forbid.”
A former detective in the unit said Adams’ presence would make him a potential witness in the criminal case against Abdullah.
“You don’t want the mayor called to testify in a criminal case. Why is the mayor getting involved in law enforcement? He’s not in law enforcement anymore. The defense lawyers are going to subpoena him, and depose him every chance they get,” the detective said.
City Hall declined to comment on how close the plan came to fruition. Adams said during a press conference Tuesday announcing Abdullah’s arrest that he didn’t want to share details about his role in the surrender because it could complicate the criminal case.
“This is an active case in front of the DA, and I’m not going to say anything that’s going to impede the investigation at all,” Adams said.
The unusual handoff — in which a Rolls-Royce-driving bishop would have delivered an accused killer to the mayor awaiting them at an NYPD stationhouse — didn’t happen because cops ran out of patience, sources said.
The NYPD got wind that Abdullah was meeting his attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s offices in lower Manhattan, sources said. Authorities swooped in and arrested him before he could be brought to the precinct stationhouse.
“We think [Adams] had the best of intentions,” an NYPD source indicated. “It was more of the bishop trying to ramp up the production.”
As for the arrest, the source described putting Abdullah in handcuffs as basic police work: “We saw a man wanted for murder leave a building and we didn’t know where he was going to go next.”
Legal Aid attorneys said the bishop had no approval to speak on their behalf about the suspect during the hourslong debate over his surrender. A police source alleged Whitehead was monitoring the media presence during the back-and-forth, waiting for a bigger crowd to arrive.
Whitehead did not return messages about the strange circumstances surrounding the arrest.
“We know the bishop is mad,” the NYPD source said. “But we’re not mad. The only person we’re mad at is the guy who killed a man for no reason.”