Attorney General Releases Bodycam Footage of Fatal Police Shootout at East 96th Street and Madison Avenue

The state’s top prosecutor has released video from one of the most harrowing nights the Upper East Side saw last year.

New York Attorney General Letitia James this week made public body-worn camera and security camera footage from the November shootout near East 96th Street and Madison Avenue, in which a man was killed after opening fire on NYPD officers on a busy stretch of sidewalk. The Attorney General’s office released the footage Monday as part of its ongoing investigation, and identified the man who died as Elijah Brown — a name that had not been made public at the time of our original coverage.

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According to the Attorney General’s office, officers were canvassing the area around 7:20 p.m. on November 13 after multiple 911 calls reported a man with a gun. They encountered Brown — matching the description, gun in hand — on Madison Avenue. Brown fired, officers discharged their service weapons in response, and Brown was struck. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A gun was recovered at the scene.

As we reported at the time, the shooting capped a string of alarming encounters that began about 20 minutes earlier, when the man pointed a gun at a fellow passenger in an elevator at 1590 Madison Avenue, then aimed the weapon at a deli worker at 1600 Madison Avenue while threatening to “shoot up” a hospital. He briefly entered Mount Sinai Hospital, struggled with an off-duty NYPD officer working security, then fled south on Madison before officers from the 19th Precinct confronted him between East 95th and 96th Streets — with civilians stepping off an MTA bus nearby.

The footage release follows James’ standing directive that camera footage obtained during investigations by her Office of Special Investigation (OSI) be made public to increase transparency and strengthen trust in cases involving police. Under New York Executive Law Section 70-b, OSI assesses every reported incident in which a police or peace officer may have caused a person’s death.

The Attorney General’s office cautioned that releasing the footage “is not an expression of any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of any party,” and warned that the videos contain content viewers may find disturbing. The footage can be viewed on the Attorney General’s office website.

Here’s the footage.

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