Bystander to sue NYC for $80M, claiming ‘reckless’ NYPD left him with brain damage in ‘friendly fire’ subway shooting

The bystander hit in the head by NYPD cops shooting at an unhinged knife-wielding man on the subway will sue the city for $80 million, claiming the cops acted “recklessly,” according to court documents filed Thursday.

Gregory Delpeche, 49, is still suffering from “multiple cognitive deficits” and has trouble speaking in the aftermath of the Sept. 15 “friendly fire” shooting in Brooklyn that also left another bystander and a cop wounded, the filing states.

His notice of claim — a signal of an intent to sue — claims that police officers Edmund Mays and Alex Wong “recklessly, negligently and without justification” fired at Derrell Mickles, 37, during the confrontation on the Sutter Avenue L train station platform.

Mickles lunged at the officers with an eight-inch knife despite being zapped by Tasers and was told 38 times to drop the weapon before the cops began shooting, according to police and bodycam footage.

Delpeche’s filing in Brooklyn Supreme Court maintains that Wong “only held his gun in one hand, causing his firearm to flail around and recoil wildly” when he opened fire.

Mays “discharged his firearm in the direction of Mickles and countless bystanders within the subway cars and on the platform,” the filing alleges.

Mickles was shot, as were Mays and another bystander. Delpeche was hit in the back of the head.

“Gregory is still in the hospital,” his attorney, Nicholas Liakas, told The Post. “He’s receiving around-the-clock care but he’s not out of the woods. He’s able to communicate on a very basic level.”

The filing claims the city is at fault, maintaining that since 2021, it has “encouraged NYPD officers to use the highest and most aggressive levels of force with knowing and reckless disregard to the safety of the public.”

Police have defended the actions of the two officers, saying Mickles bears the blame — and noted that it was he who escalated the situation and threatened the cops.

“This is fast-moving, fast-paced and a stressful situation, and we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of people on that train,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters in the aftermath.

“Two minutes and 26 seconds of a complicated, fast-paced special situation involving a person in mental distress, involving a person armed with a deadly weapon, involving an oncoming occupied train, involving an 8-foot-wide platform and then a moving train, as I stated, on an elevated platform,” Chell said.

Police said the officers first caught sign of Mickles when he tried to jump the turnstile and got him to leave — but not before he flashed the knife.

When he returned and was confronted again, he allegedly lashed out.

Mickles faces charges of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, assault with intent causing serious injury with a knife, second-degree assault, menacing a police officer with a knife, criminal possession of a weapon and two counts related to turnstile jumping.

He has pleaded not guilty.