The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin was accused Monday of using images of a mentally ill man, shot and killed by Brooklyn police officers four years ago, in an ad that advocates charged was racist and misleading.
Thirty-four-year-old Saheed Vassell was gunned down on April 4, 2018 in Crown Heights by responding officers from the 71st Precinct for holding what they believed, at the time, to be a firearm. After the shooting, police discovered the object Vassell had been brandishing was actually a metal pipe that looked similar to a handgun.
