New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew criticism after misspelling the name of a veteran NYPD officer who was shot in the back over the weekend, even as he said he had visited the wounded father of three in the hospital.
In a post on X, Mamdani referred to Detective Robert Karroll by the incorrect last name “Carroll” three times.
“Early this morning in Crown Heights, Detective Robert Carroll was shot in the line of duty. I visited Detective Carroll at the hospital today, and I’m grateful his bulletproof vest protected him from more serious injury. I’m keeping him and his loved ones in my thoughts as he recovers,” Mamdani wrote Sunday afternoon.
“I’m thankful to Detective Carroll and every member of the NYPD working to keep New Yorkers safe through a busy holiday weekend,” he added.
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The mistake comes as Mamdani, who has previously supported calls to defund the police, faces renewed scrutiny over his approach to the NYPD. He recently surprised department officials and city lawmakers with a last-minute decision to cancel roughly 600 planned new officer hires.
Only weeks before that reversal, Mamdani had announced plans to add 580 officers to the force — a move that frustrated some of his democratic socialist allies because it departed from a campaign pledge to cap NYPD staffing at 35,000 officers.
The staffing dispute comes as the department contends with a heavy summer schedule, with officers assigned to 12-hour shifts amid World Cup-related tourism, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding, and the Independence Day holiday.
Karroll, a married father of three who was reportedly set to retire in 10 days, was shot early Sunday morning by an 18-year-old gunman while he and other officers were sitting in an unmarked police vehicle in Brooklyn.
Karroll was shot in the upper back, but was wearing his ballistic vest and miraculously suffered only minor injuries, police said. The suspect fled on foot but was quickly nabbed several blocks away after a dramatic foot chase.
