NYC NOW - Midday News: Police Fatally Shoot Man on Staten Island, Barnes & Noble Workers Unionize, and Mayor Adams Testifies on Sanctuary Cities

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

A man was shot and killed by police in a Staten Island parking lot early Thursday morning after officers responded to a 911 call. Meanwhile, more than 200 Barnes & Noble workers in New York City have become the bookseller’s first-ever unionized employees. Also, Mayor Eric Adams testified before Congress Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing on sanctuary cities. The hearing focused on how local governments cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. WNYC reporter Arya Sundaram has the latest.

NYC, how I see. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, March 6th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. A man is dead after being shot in the chest by police in a Staten Island parking lot early this morning. The NYPD says officers responded to a 911 call at a Home Depot parking lot in the Charleston neighborhood, just after 515. Police say they'd received reports of a man with a firearm there.

Assistant Chief Melissa Eager says the officers on the scene ask the man to put down his weapon, which he refused. Our officers confronted a dangerous and armed individual and attempted to de-escalate the situation multiple times. Five officers then opened fire on the man who police say was struck, quote, several times. He was pronounced dead as a lot. a local hospital. Records show this is the second person MWIPD officials have shot and killed so far this year. More than 200 Barnes & Noble workers in New York City are now the bookseller's first

employees to unionize. The retail, wholesale, and department store union says workers at three Barnes & Noble stores in the city have ratified their union contracts. This includes employees at the company's flagship store in Union Square, which is right below its corporate offices. The union says it's secured wage increases and a higher starting wage for employees, along with union health care coverage and safety equipment for workers. Employees at the West 82nd Street and park slope stores are also now unionized. A Barnes & Noble Spurksperson says it's eager to, quote, get back to bookselling after this episode. Now for the weather, it is 52 and cloudy with a wind advisory in effect.

Today it'll get as high as 53 tonight, near freezing. Stay tuned for more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. Mayor Eric Adams was in Washington, D.C. To testify for the House Oversight Committee on Sanctuary Cities. Here to talk more about what happened is WNYC reporter Ariasandrum. All right, can we just first start with what this House Oversight Committee hearing was for? Sure. So it was about sanctuary cities.

And I'm sure we've been hearing this term a lot, It's not an official term. It's a term of art, which basically just means places where there are laws or other rules that limit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Adams wasn't the only person invited. It was also the mayor from Boston, Chicago, Denver, who all have similar sanctuary policies in their cities. And this committee that hosted the hearing was controlled by Republicans. And it was clear that they really wanted to take these mayors to tax. ask for these policies. Before the hearing, actually, the committee released this dramatic movie trailer like ad depicting the cities as lawless, you know, teeming with immigrants, highlighting a number of high-profilegedly by immigrants, and a number of social media posts by the committee said that they wanted to hold these mayors publicly accountable, presumably for these crimes and policies. So what did Adams say about immigration enforcement in the city? So Adams really had to, and did walk this tightrope of at once praising immigrants for their

contributions to the city, you know, staffing, restaurants and hospitals and other places across the city. And also, you know, he really clearly supported deporting immigrants who break the law. That's been his stance for quite some time. He also really touted the reductions and major crimes in the city under his watch, you know, a stark contrast to the image of lawlessness and crime painted by the Republicans. And he promoted the city's cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts. You know, city laws largely prohibit police officers. from working with federal immigration officers, but he did say 70 NYPD officers are assigned to task forces with Homeland Security Investigations, which is the law enforcement branch of the

Department of Homeland Security, which also oversees ICE. And he was even praised by the committee chairman, James Comer or Republican from Kentucky, about this point. You have publicly stated that you were willing to work with ICE on detaining the most criminal illegals. And I want to publicly thank you for that. And it was mentioned several times that he met with Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, to discuss immigration efforts and how the city exactly would cooperate with Trump's immigration agenda. And after the most recent meeting last month, of course, Adams agreed to issue an executive order to reallow ICE to open an office back on Rikers Island.

Now, was the Adams experience here in line with the other city mayors who were invited to testify? Absolutely not. You know, the other mayors were grilled as the, you know, the, you know, kind of preview suggested by Comer and the other Republicans. And Adams in comparison was either largely ignored or even given a pat on the back in some cases, you know, not just Comer. You know, another representative, Gary Palmer from Alabama, came to his defense saying Adams was being attacked because of his willingness to cooperate with ICE.

Another representative, William Timmons from South Carolina, applauded him for being, quote, the only mayor to stand up to the Biden administration. And the borders are, Homan. You know, he even posted on Twitter in Adams' defense, calling, you know, who were attacking him during the hearing, simply disgusting. And it was just so striking for a Democratic mayor to get so much support from his colleagues across the aisle. Meanwhile, as these other Democratic mayors were really being shaken down. Yeah, wow. So Democratic lawmakers also took the opportunity to ask Mayor Adams about the federal corruption charges against him and whether

or not he's made a deal with the Trump administration. Can he just tell us more about that? Absolutely. So several Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on Adams' coziness with the Trump administration, directly asking him if he'd made what's called like a quid pro quo arrangement with the Trump administration. And specifically, you know, that is, did he promise to carry out Trump's immigration agenda in exchange for prosecutors moving to drop the charges, the corruption charges against him? And Adams just kept saying the same thing over and over again. And by the end, he kind of sounded exasperated after repeating it so many times. No deal, no quid pro quo, and I didn't do anything wrong, was the phrase that he just kept on repeating. And it honestly didn't clearly seem to satisfy.

by most of the Democrats who asked the question, and a few even called for him to resign. Now, I personally agree with the majority of New Yorkers and think, Mr. Mary, that you should resign. You should do the right thing. You should step down and resign today. That was Robert Garcia from Long Beach, California. And Laura Gillen from Long Island said the same thing.

Wow. So mostly Democratic lawmakers are asking Adams the toughest questions. You have some Republicans thanking Adams. It's like the world is turned on its head here. What does it say about Adams' position in the Democratic? party. Really? I think it's a mark of how estranged he's become from his own party. You know, he stuck his neck out, criticized Biden, didn't show up to the Democratic National Convention, and now he's being praised by Republicans and decried by Democrats. It's really a sign that he's lost the support of

his party at this point. It's WNYC reporter Ariya Sundaram. Ari, thanks so much. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. and subscribe wherever you get your podcast.