NYPD Commissioner resigns after only almost 18 months on the job

In the spirit of firsts, the Democratic Mayor of New York City and former cop, Eric Adams, appointed Keechant Sewell as the city's first female police commissioner and she gets bonus intersectional points for being black.

Sewell was sworn in on Jan. 1, 2022 and declared that she was ready to lace up her shoes and get the job done. But in less than a year and a half, she's calling it quits Monday and the reason has not been revealed. Perhaps it comes after a daylight incident of a murder took place in the streets of Manhattan just yesterday. Or maybe it has to do with CVS pharmacies and other businesses having to lock their items up to prevent unopposed theft. Maybe the revolving door no bail balderdash has gotten to her and she became too frustrated to stay, because she refuses to be a hypocrite. 

Who knows?

“I have made the decision to step down from my position,” Sewell wrote in an email to the department Monday afternoon as she stepped away from her advocacy and support for the NYPD. “While my time here will come to a close, I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the NYPD, and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City.”

Sewell, 51, is leaving and it isn't known who will be stepping into her formerly laced up shoes to run the largest and largely impotent police force in the country.

“Since I joined you almost a year and a half ago we have faced tremendous tragedy, challenges and triumphs together,” Sewell wrote in the memo to the NYPD’s 55,000 members.

“I have witnessed your compassion, heroics and selflessness on a daily basis,” the email, obtained by The Post, read. “They have reaffirmed to me what people around the globe have always known: you are an extraordinary collective of hard-working public servants dedicated to the safety of this city, engaging our communities and sharing what we know with our partners for the benefit of the world,” Sewell wrote and added yadda yadda.

Lately, Commissioner Sewell has been stymied when attempting to make departmental decisions.

NYPD commissioners have historically held the authority to promote rank and file cops to detective, and detectives to higher ranks — but Sewell had to run the moves past City Hall, law enforcement sources said.

“They tied her up,” one source told the New York Post. “There’s no executive choices on her behalf. If a cop distinguishes himself and she wants to promote him, she can’t do it.”

Sewell was spotted at City Hall around 3:45 p.m. Monday but declined to answer questions.

Sources said Adams was blindsided by her immediate resignation like he was when after making New York a sanctuary city and illegal aliens were sent there.

“The mayor was caught short,” a law enforcement source said Monday. “They did not think she would be leaving today. The earliest they thought it was later in the summer.”

Good for her. I suspect she has integrity, which is more than I can say for Eric Adams and others.

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U-Haul intentionally plows into 8 NYC pedestrians, 1 dead

A 62-year-old man drove a U-Haul truck through the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn where he intentionally plowed into people on Monday, killing a 44-year-old person and seriously injuring 7 others. The police pursuit lasted miles through the streets but he was finally stopped when the vehicle was pinned by police near the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell described it as a "violent rampage," but said there was no evidence of "terrorism involvement."

The driver, Weng Sor, has a history of violent behavior, but it isn't known if he knows karate.

Sor rented the U-Haul in Florida on Feb. 1st and drove it to New York where he used it as a deadly weapon and then led the cops on a 3 mile chase until he was finally caught. 

His son, Stephen Sor, 30, said that his father has a lengthy history of mental illness and had been living in Las Vegas until recently. He had been convicted and served time for multiple acts of violence, including stabbing his own brother."Very frequently he'll choose to skip out on his medications and do something like this," Stephen Sor said in an interview outside his Brooklyn home. 

"This isn't the first time he's been arrested. It's not the first time he's gone to jail."

The late morning attack was reminiscent of the 2017 vehicle attack in lower Manhattan on the West Side Highway bike path that killed 8 people and injured 20 others. That attack was carried out by an Islamic jihadi named Sayfullo Saipov who was recently convicted on all 28 counts and is awaiting to find out if he will receive the death penalty.

The first report of the attack into pedestrians and cyclists came in at 10:30 a.m., police said. Other reports of the lunatic followed as he drove through a crowded section of Brooklyn, just north of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.

One witness, Katherine Aronova, said she saw the U-Haul run a red light, hit a delivery worker on an e-bike in the middle of the road and drag him a short distance.  "His face was covered with blood. He was unconscious," and his shoes were scattered on the sidewalk, she said. "The electric bicycle was destroyed completely."

A security camera captured the truck hitting a scooter, swerve onto a sidewalk and nearly struck a pedestrian, who dived to safety just in time. 

A police patrol car chased the truck down the sidewalk at high speed. One cop who responded to the incident was among the injured.

After Sor was capture, the vehicle was examined for explosives and found none.

Sor rented the truck in West Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 1 and was due to return it there on March 3, U-Haul spokesperson Jeff Lockridge said. He provided a valid driver's license and paid for a 30-day rental in advance. U-Haul had no record of Sor previously renting from the company, Lockridge said.

Stephen Sor said he was surprised when Weng Sor showed up in Brooklyn in the middle of the night about a week ago. He said they didn't speak often and described their relationship as "rocky."

"I try to just distance, as long as he leaves us alone," Stephen Sor said.

In 2015, Weng Sor stabbed his brother in Las Vegas and served about 17 months in a Nevada prison, according to court and prison records. In 2020, he stabbed someone in the arm and chest with a knife and was sentenced to 364 days in county jail, with about 10 months of time already served.

Before pleading guilty in that case, Sor underwent several months of evaluations at state psychiatric facilities until he was found competent to face charges, court records show. The records don't list a possible diagnosis, but note that Sor was placed on medications. My guess is that he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In an earlier case in Nevada, Sor was ordered to undergo counseling and perform community service after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery in 2005. The judge noted at the time that Sor was moving to New York and ordered him to submit to a mental health evaluation once there.

Let this recent incident be his mental health evaluation. He needs to be put away where he can do no harm.

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