If you have never heard the dating term “situationship,” 1) consider yourself lucky, and 2) allow us to explain.
The term is used to define a relationship that isn’t, well, defined. It’s less than an established relationship and more than a friendship, though I’d argue “friends with benefits” doesn’t count as a situationship, because that can have clear terms.
“Situationships”, meanwhile, are often characterised by mismatched intention, uncertainty, and frustration. Most daters seem to want to avoid situationships; they are something singles sometimes fall into.
But according to a 2025 survey of 1,000 people in the UK by greetings card marketplace thortful, more and more daters are ending up in situationships. In fact, searches for “situationship quotes for him/her” have doubled on their site.
Of those in situationships, their survey found these were the most common types:
1) A “talking stage” (37%)
This involves “texting and flirting ending by becoming official or fading out”.
You might never meet a “talking stage” in person. Most of the contact is online or through text and calls: it’s not unlike a “textationship”. These can go on for years with zero IRL contact, and may sometimes lead daters to think their time has been wasted.
2) An almost-relationship (23%)
In this case, a pair might “act like a couple, but never have the label or commitment”.
This can sometimes lead to difficult not-quite-breakups.
3) An emotional situationship (20%)
In this case, there’s no physical element to the relationship. Instead, a pair might experience a “deep emotional connection” without any commitment or sexual contact.
It can feel like an undecided “flirty friendship” that leaves you with a lot of uncertainty.
4) A convenience situationship (11%)
These “exist due to proximity only”: you might get with someone when you two are close together, but for at least one party, that geographical convenience is the biggest factor in the relationship.
It’s similar to “zip-coding”.
5) A placeholder situationship (10%)
In this case, “you’re filling time until something ‘better’ comes along”, thortful said.
It might involve “Shrekking,” or choosing someone you don’t think is as attractive as you, because you believe that might mean they’ll be grateful for your time. Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, psychologist Dr Carolina Estevez said: “These trends normalise dishonesty and avoidance, eroding trust and self-esteem and lowering relationship satisfaction”.
Hull KR coach Willie Peters has stated his interest in taking over as England boss for the World Cup.
The Australian is among the leading candidates for the position following the departure of Shaun Wane last month.
Peters led Hull KR to the treble of Super League, league leaders’ shield and Challenge Cup last season.
The 46-year-old told the Press Association: “Yes, I’m interested for sure. Certainly we should have conversations but when that happens, if it happens, I don’t know.
“I’ve been over here for a long time. I’ve been a player and a coach. I understand the game.”
Wane stood down following England’s 3-0 defeat to Australia in last autumn’s Ashes.
Peters was part of the Kangaroos backroom staff during that series and, from what he saw, believes England have the basis of a side that can challenge in the World Cup later this year.
He said: “I’m honest in terms of how I think we can all grow the game here and develop it and I don’t think England are too far off.
“The area, I believe, that needs work is around that spine. England’s never had any problems with completing, passion and effort, that type of thing.
“As long as they maintain that then they’ll put themselves in a position to have a successful World Cup.”
The Rugby Football League has indicated that the role of national team coach will revert to being a part-time position, allowing someone to take it up alongside club commitments.
Peters said: “If that’s the way they’re going to go, then there will certainly be some coaches putting their hands up.”
The 2026 World Cup takes place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in October and November, after the domestic season finishes.
Newswise — ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 22, 2026) — A major winter storm is expected to bring dangerously low temperatures and heavy snow through the weekend across a nearly 2,000-mile stretch of the United States, from the southern Plains to the Northeast.
The storm is expected to develop on Friday, creating a hazardous mix of heavy snow and ice that could cause power outages for millions of Americans and make roads impassable.
Allison Finch, lead meteorologist at the University at Albany’s State Weather Risk Communication Center, is closely monitoring the storm. She says snow, freezing rain, sleet, gusty winds and dangerously cold temperatures are all among the hazards expected.
“From Texas to the Mid-Atlantic states, this storm looks to bring snow and a widespread swath of ice,” Finch said. “Ice is a very impactful hazard to begin with, but when it occurs in areas that doesn’t typically experience it as often, impacts can be exacerbated. Among the impacts is the likelihood of power outages. Anyone who loses a heat source may be impacted since temperatures are not expected to rebound quickly after the storm.”
Finch points to two main factors fueling the storm — cold air from Canada and moisture moving up from the Gulf of Mexico.
“A powerful Arctic air mass is sweeping across the U.S. late this week and into next week, bringing temperatures well below average,” Finch said. “At the same time, a large plume of moisture originating from warm ocean waters is being drawn into that Arctic air. When that moisture gets wrapped into the cold air mass, it provides the fuel needed for a widespread and potentially high-impact winter storm.”
Launched in 2023, the State Weather Risk Communication Center is a first-of-its-kind partnership between UAlbany and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services that leverages the University’s expertise in atmospheric sciences to help emergency managers prepare for and respond to severe weather events.
The Center provides rapid, tailored, real-time weather information and custom weather services to New York state and local public-sector partners.
Finch, along with other meteorologists at the State Weather Risk Communication Center, are available to share their insights on this weekend’s winter storm via phone or live/recorded interviews.
For the latest conditions in New York, follow the NYS Mesonet, a statewide weather observation network operated by UAlbany, which provides real-time data from monitoring sites across the state.
About the University at Albany:
The University at Albany is one of the most diverse public research institutions in the nation and a national leader in educational equity and social mobility. As a Carnegie-classified R1 institution, UAlbany faculty and students are advancing our understanding of the world in fields such as artificial intelligence, atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, social sciences, criminal justice, humanities, emergency preparedness, engineering, public administration, and social welfare. Our courses are taught by an accomplished roster of faculty experts with student success at the center of everything we do. Through our parallel commitments to academic excellence, scientific discovery and service to community, UAlbany molds bright, curious and engaged leaders and launches great careers.
This photograph shows a partial view of a Volvo X30 electric car with the company logo at the Volvo factory in Ghent on April 25, 2025. This factory will produce the Volvo X30 100% electric model for the European market.
Nicolas Tucat | Afp | Getty Images
Shares of Sweden’s Volvo Cars tumbled as much as 19% on Thursday morning, putting the company on track for its worst trading day ever.
The automaker, which is owned by China’s Geely Holding, posted a substantial drop in fourth-quarter operating profit, citing the impact of U.S. tariffs, negative currency effects and weak demand.
Volvo Cars said fourth-quarter operating income excluding items affecting comparability fell by 68% to 1.8 billion Swedish krona ($200.46 million) compared to the same period a year prior.
“We have a very challenging market, especially in China, very tough competition. All of our European colleagues have the same problem,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Thursday.
He added the discontinuation of EV incentives in the U.S. and China were also contributing to “a very challenging external environment.”
“But internally we have had very good work done with lowering our costs and securing a positive cash flow, so that I would highlight as the most important positive things that we have reached during the year,” he added.
Shares of Volvo Cars were last seen down 18.1%, having pared some of its earlier losses. A single-session fall of more than 11.2% would reflect the firm’s worst trading day ever.
Industry groups, which tentatively welcomed the trade deal at the time, expressed deep concern about the costs associated with the new tariffs.
Volvo Cars has long been considered one of the most exposed European carmakers to U.S. tariffs.
Looking ahead, Volvo Cars said deliveries of its new and fully electric EX60 mid-size SUV will ramp up during the second half of 2026.
However, it warned the year ahead is likely to be another challenging one, with continued pricing pressure, tariff effects, regulatory uncertainty and softer consumer sentiment likely to weigh on the industry.
Today is Thursday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2026. There are 329 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Feb. 5, 1994, white separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Mississippi, of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Also on this date:
In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an act that severely curtailed Asian immigration and mandated immigrant literacy testing.
In 1918, more than 200 people were killed during World War I when the Cunard liner SS Tuscania, which was transporting over 2,000 American troops to Europe, was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland.
In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell stepped onto the moon’s surface in the first of two lunar excursions.
In 1973, services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for U.S. Army Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty in the Vietnam War before a ceasefire took effect.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, granting workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family emergencies.
In 2008, an outbreak of 87 tornadoes fired up across nine states, killing 57 people in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama during a span of 12 hours. One Arkansas twister left a 122-mile path of damage along the ground.
In 2017, Tom Brady led one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history, highlighted by a spectacular Julian Edelman catch that helped lift New England from a 25-point deficit against the Atlanta Falcons to the Patriots’ fifth Super Bowl victory, 34-28; it was the first Super Bowl to end in overtime.
In 2020, the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial. Most senators expressed unease with Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine that prompted the impeachment, but just one Republican, Mitt Romney of Utah, broke party ranks and voted to convict. In 2021, the Senate acquitted Trump in a second trial for allegedly inciting the violent Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol.
In 2023, Beyoncé won her 32nd Grammy to become the most decorated artist in the history of the award.
Morning opening: Trilateral talks on Ukraine war in Abu Dhabi get back under way
Jakub Krupa
Ukraine-Russia talks have restarted this morning, after Russian president’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev reported “positive movement forward” last night.
Members of the US, Russian and Ukrainian delegations attend the second round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Photograph: Uae Ministry Of Foreign Affairs/Reuters
“The warmongers from Europe, from Britain, are constantly trying to interfere with this process, constantly trying to meddle in it. And the more such attempts there are, the more we see that progress is definitely being made,” he claimed.
The talks continue in a trilateral format of consultations, Ukraine’s lead negotiator and former defence minister Rustem Umerov said.
Separately, Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk is in Kyiv today to express his solidarity with the wartorn country amid continuing energy, heat outages. Last week Poland was one of the EU countries which sent heat and power generators to the Ukrainian capital.
His visit comes just days after Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte visited Ukraine.
Separately, EU leaders António Costa and Ursula von der Leyen are expected in Paris today for talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, about the upcoming EU summit on competitiveness on 12 February.
Macron, somewhat sidelined by the seemingly growing German-Italian partnership, will want to put on the table his ideas on how to fix the bloc.
Lots for us to cover.
It’s Thursday, 5 February 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
A partial government shutdown has recently come to an end, but another one may be on the horizon if Democrats and Republicans can’t hammer out an agreement on potential restrictions to put on immigration enforcement tactics that have been put in the spotlight after two fatal shootings by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis last month.
A day after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the overwhelming majority of his caucus voted against a funding deal Senate Democrats had struck with the White House, Democratic leaders presented a unified message as they laid out their demands for reform at the Department of Homeland Security — calling on Republicans to “get serious” as lawmakers face a Feb. 13 deadline to fund the agency.
“The House and Senate are completely and totally on the same page in terms of Democrats,” Jeffries told reporters Wednesday. “Leader Schumer and I had a close, positive conversation yesterday about the path forward.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, flanked by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Katherine Clark, House minority whip, speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Capitol, Feb. 4, 2026.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they “had a really good and productive meeting, and we’re on the same page.”
As Jeffries and Schumer steady themselves for bipartisan negotiations, both leaders appeared eager to capitalize on the public backlash against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.
Democrats called to separate the DHS funding following the deaths of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, and became more urgent after the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.
Sixty-two percent of Americans say current efforts by ICE to deal with unauthorized immigration go too far, according to polling conducted by Ipsos Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.
Democrats lay out 10 key demands for DHS funding
In a letter Wednesday to Republican leaders, Jeffries and Schumer laid out 10 key demands from Democrats on DHS funding, including calling for judicial warrants before agents can enter private property, a ban on Immigration and Customs Enforcement wearing face masks, requiring the use of body cameras and new laws for use-of-force standards.
“Furthermore, there are steps that the Trump administration has the power to take right now to show good faith, including fully ramping down the surge in Minnesota and removing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from her position,” Jeffries and Schumer wrote in the letter.
In remarks earlier Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator in the upper chamber, said “Democrats are at the table. We are focused on getting a bill, but it has to be a bill that reins in the abuses that we are seeing by ICE and CBP.”
Still, bipartisan negotiations did not commence Wednesday, and Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House on recess a day early on Wednesday afternoon.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, speaks at a press conference on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding at the Capitol, Feb. 4, 2026.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“The bottom line is we’re ready to sit down and negotiate,” Schumer said earlier. “If [Republicans are] not serious and they don’t put in real reform, they shouldn’t expect our votes. Plain and simple.”
In earlier remarks, Schumer and Jeffries seemed unsure whether they’re negotiating with President Donald Trump or congressional Republicans — with Schumer reporting that Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Democrats to talk to the White House.
“Both are afraid of their shadows, and they’re getting a lot of blowback and pressure from their left,” Thune said of Jeffries and Schumer, according to Bloomberg, with Thune adding he hadn’t received an offer from Democratic leaders as of Wednesday morning.
“Thune is scared of his own shadow,” Jeffries told reporters early Wednesday afternoon. “We are negotiating because we want to try to achieve an outcome, but the changes that are enacted with respect to the way in which the Department of Homeland Security is conducting itself need to be bold, meaningful and transformative.”
The GOP response
Johnson said that Democrats “want to have a judicial warrant on top of the immigration judge warrant. And we can’t do that,” noting time constraints.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to reporters after the House passed legislation to reopen and fund the government at the Capitol, Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images
Johnson has signaled a “good faith” willingness to compromise on body cameras, but was adamant that Republicans would not support a ban on face masks for agents.
“When you have people doxing them and targeting them, of course, we don’t want their personal identification out there on the streets, and so we’ve got to work through this in a meaningful way, in a thoughtful way that comports with common sense,” Johnson said Sunday.
Exit ramps
So far, Democrats have not put their proposal into legislative text.
Republicans have also not crafted any legislation so far to address next week’s deadline.
“Let’s hope that over the next two weeks, we can negotiate and get this done,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “[Democrats] say they want a real negotiation with President Trump and Republicans over immigration enforcement policy, and we are happy to have that debate.”
The Capitol is visible through the Cannon House Office Building, Feb. 3, 2026.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Jeffries told reporters that he is a “hard no” on a continuing resolution for Homeland Security through the end of the fiscal year.
“We need to resolve this issue by Feb. 13,” Jeffries said. “American citizens are being killed in the streets. Children are being kidnapped. Houses of worship, schools and hospitals are being stormed. We need to get this done and get this done immediately.”
Democrats predicated that Republicans are setting the stage for a shutdown.
“Mike Johnson has articulated unreasonable positions,” Jeffries said. “He’s actually supporting the notion that masked and lawless ICE agents should be deployed in communities throughout America. That’s Mike Johnson’s position. That’s contrary to what the American people believe should be taking place.”
Johnson told reporters that he was heading to the White House later Wednesday to talk to the president.
“We’ll see how it all develops,” Johnson said.
What is the impact of shutting down DHS next week?
The DHS appropriations bill funds far more than ICE, despite ICE getting most of the attention in this current standoff. The bill also funds Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service, among other federal agencies.
While there is some FY2026 funding for ICE, the agency received a $75 billion infusion of funding over the next decade through the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” so a lapse in funding at DHS would not cease operations there.
“What they’ll be shutting down is FEMA operations, as we’re cleaning up from the winter storm. They’ll be shutting down TSA, which is obviously necessary to keep the country moving through our airports. Coast Guard operations,” Johnson said of Democrats’ actions. “I mean, so many important functions in the Department of Homeland Security is what will be adversely affected by these partisan games. Let’s hope and pray that they don’t do that. Let’s hope that over the next two weeks, we can negotiate and get this done.”
The engines are still 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids, as they have been since 2014, but one of the two electrical motors that recovered energy has been removed.
The total amount of electrical energy has been increased by a factor of three, but the battery is more or less the same size. If the battery is fully depleted, the engine loses 350kw (470bhp), leading to potentially dramatic speed differentials.
Drivers will be backing off towards the end of straights – and being careful about when they apply the throttle – to ensure the most efficient energy usage, even on a qualifying lap.
The cars are also smaller and lighter, have less downforce and have ‘active aerodynamics’ – where both front and rear wings open on the straights to increase speed and the possibility for energy recovery.
Norris said the new car “certainly feels more powerful and quicker” on the straight.
“The biggest challenge at the minute is battery management and knowing how to utilise that in the best way,” he said.
“It’s not simple. You can explain it in quite simple terms. It’s just you have a very powerful battery that doesn’t last very long, so knowing how to use it in the right times, how much energy, how much of that power you use, how you split it up around the lap…
“The biggest challenge is how you can recover the batteries as well as possible, and that’s when it comes down to using the gears, hitting the right revs.
“Obviously, you’ve got some turbo lag now, which we’ve never really had before. All of these little things have crept back in, but I don’t think that changes too much.
“In a perfect world, I probably wouldn’t have [all] that in a race car, but it’s just F1. Sometimes you have these different challenges.”
His team-mate Oscar Piastri said the cars were “not as alien as I think we might have feared” and insisted he “didn’t think F1 had lost its identity at all”.
The Australian added: “There’s going to be some things to get used to but in terms of some of the fears that maybe we had before we got on track, a significant majority of those have been alleviated now.
“There’ll be some differences, but I think fundamentally they’re still the fastest cars in the world.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NC) is seeking to subpoena Bill Gates after seeing his ex-wife’s reaction to disturbing accusations against the Microsoft co-founder made in the latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.
The congresswoman revealed her intentions in a Wednesday social media post, saying she asked House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) to subpoena the Microsoft co-founder “immediately” after she watched Melinda Gates’ Tuesday interview on NPR’s Wild Card podcast.
In a later post, Mace said, “We’re calling for Bill Gates to testify under oath on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in front of the Oversight Committee.”
“[Three] million pages of Epstein documents were just released by the DOJ and the allegations are SICK. If these allegations are false, Bill Gates should have no problem saying so under oath before Congress,” the congresswoman continued. “Nobody is above the law. Not billionaires. Not the powerful. Nobody.”
The recent trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) showed the late sex predator claiming in a 2013 email that Bill caught an STD after “sex with Russians girls,” and wanted to secretly slip antibiotics to Melinda instead of telling her.
As Breitbart News’s Alana Mastrangelo reported, the email was sent only to Epstein himself but appeared to be notes that the billionaire financier drafted for Bill’s longtime adviser, Boris Nikolic.
A 2017 email published by the Wall Street Journal in 2023 also appeared to show Epstein threatening to expose Bill’s alleged affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, supposedly because the tech mogul refused to join a charitable fund the disgraced financier had started.
Melinda shared her dismay at the allegations on Wild Card, saying Bill and other Epstein associates “need to answer to those things.”
“I think we’re having a reckoning as a society,” she told host Rachel Martin. “No girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him.”
Bill and Melinda jointly announced their divorce in 2021 after 27 years of marriage and three children, saying, “[W]e no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”
“It’s beyond heartbreaking. I remember being those ages those girls were; I remember my daughters being those ages,” Melinda added on the podcast.
“So, for me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage, but I have moved on from that,” she continued, before saying “whatever questions” that remain on the Epstein debacle “are for those people, and even my ex-husband.”
“They need to answer to those things, not me,” Melinda added. “And I am so happy to be away from all the muck.”
A spokesperson for Bill responded to the allegations in the 2013 email in a statement to Business Insider, saying, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false.”
“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the spokesperson added.
It remains unclear whether the 2013 emails were ever sent to Bill himself.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
The New York City Police Department released body camera footage showing the moment an officer shot a mentally ill man who was allegedly charging him with a knife amid calls from NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani for mental health treatment instead of criminal charges.
Jabez Chakraborty, 22, was holding a large kitchen knife and charged at officers who responded to an emergency call from his family in Queens on Jan. 26, according to the NYPD.
The footage, released by the NYPD on Tuesday, shows an officer entering the living room of the home, where Chakraborty was allegedly brandishing a knife. Officers are heard attempting to de-escalate the situation, repeatedly ordering him to “put the knife down,” but Chakraborty continued to move toward the officer, according to the NYPD.
A woman is seen in the footage attempting to block Chakraborty with her arm, but he continued to step forward while carrying the knife. The footage shows the NYPD officer reposition himself in the home’s vestibule and closing the door between himself and the living room.
REPLACE COPS WITH SOCIAL WORKERS, ‘TRANSIT AMBASSADORS’ ON SOME 911 CALLS: MAMDANI
Newly released NYPD bodycam footage shows an officer shooting a man allegedly carrying a knife during an emergency response inside a Queens home.(NYPD)
According to the NYPD, Chakraborty then pushed through the door and stepped toward the officer with the knife.
The officer discharged his weapon, hitting Chakraborty four times. He was taken to the hospital, where he remains in intensive care in stable but critical condition.
The clip released by the NYPD begins with audio of a 911 call from “a civilian witness” reporting that Chakraborty was experiencing a mental health episode and had thrown a glass against the wall. The caller requested EMS, not police, asking for an ambulance so that Chakraborty could be taken involuntarily to the hospital.
The incident is being investigated by the Queens District Attorney’s office, with preliminary reports suggesting prosecutors are looking at potentially seeking an indictment for attempted murder.
Mamdani, however, said at a news conference on Tuesday that Chakraborty should receive mental health treatment and not face criminal charges.
“In viewing this footage, it is clear to me that what Jabez needs is mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution from a district attorney, and we are talking about a family that is enduring the kind of pain that no family should and an individual that has lived with schizophrenia for many years,” the mayor said.
“A person experiencing a mental health episode does not always have to be served first or exclusively by a police officer. It is important for us to have all of the options available,” he added.
MAMDANI SIGNALS DISBANDING NYPD PROTEST UNIT, CALLS FOR HIGHER TAXES ON TOP 1% AMID BUDGET RECKONING
Jabez Chakraborty, 22, was allegedly holding a large kitchen knife and charged at the officers who responded to the emergency call from the family.(NYPD)
Mamdani said he met with Chakraborty’s family, who had criticized him for his initial response to the shooting. The mayor said hours after the shooting that police had “encountered an individual wielding a knife,” and that he was “grateful to the first responders who put themselves on the line each day to keep our communities safe.”
Chakraborty’s family released a statement Wednesday accusing law enforcement of causing the situation to “escalate quickly and unnecessarily.”
“Rather than de-escalate the situation, the officer instead further escalated by drawing his gun and yelling orders at Jabez,” the family wrote. “Within a minute of NYPD’s arrival, Jabez was shot multiple times and almost killed, while he was calmly eating food just minutes earlier.”
The family called on the Queens DA’s office to “drop the prosecution against our son,” and for the NYPD to release additional body camera footage from the incident.
The family argued that police officers should not be responding to medical support calls.
The NYPD released bodycam video showing the moments leading up to a police shooting during a mental health crisis response.(NYPD)
“Given our experience, and that of many other families, we call on the Mayor for systems where we can call for responders who are not police,” the family wrote. “We call for changes where the needs of families in the aftermath of such incidents are centered rather than further traumatized over and over.”
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the body camera footage “makes it clear that these police officers walked into an unpredictable, fast-moving and dangerous situation.”
“There was no time or space for them to de-escalate the situation before they were forced to act,” he added. “They did their job professionally and with restraint under terrible circumstances.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the NYPD for comment.
Fox News Digital Landon Mion contributed to this report.
