Midday News: Police Fatally Shoot Man on Staten Island, Barnes & Noble Workers Unionize, and Mayor Adams Testifies on Sanctuary Cities

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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, March 6th. Here's the midday news from Verónica Del Valle.

Verónica Del Valle: A man is dead after being shot in the chest by police in a Staten Island parking lot early this morning. The NYPD says officers responded to a 911 call at a Home Depot parking lot in the Charleston neighborhood just after 5:15. Police say they'd received reports of a man with a firearm there. Assistant Chief Melissa Eger says the officers on the scene asked the man to put down his weapon, which he refused.

Assistant Chief Melissa Eger: Our officers confronted a dangerous and armed individual and attempted to de-escalate the situation multiple times.

Verónica Del Valle: Five officers then opened fire on the man who police say was struck "several times." He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Records show this is the second person NYPD officials have shot and killed so far this year. More than 200 Barnes & Noble workers in New York City are now the bookseller's first employees to unionize. The retail, wholesale, and department store union says workers at three Barnes & Noble stores in the city have ratified their union contracts. This includes employees at the company's flagship store in Union Square, which is right below its corporate offices.

The union says it secured wage increases and a higher starting wage for employees along with union health care coverage and safety equipment for workers. Employees at the West 82nd Street and Park Slope stores are also now unionized. A Barnes & Noble spokesperson says it's eager to "get back to bookselling after this episode."

Now for the weather, it is 52 and cloudy with a wind advisory in effect. Today, it'll get as high as 53. Tonight, near freezing.

Janae Pierre: Stay tuned for more after the break.

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Sean Carlson: On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. Mayor Eric Adams was in Washington, DC to testify for the House Oversight Committee on sanctuary cities. Here to talk more about what happened is WNYC reporter Arya Sundaram. All right, can we just first start with what this House Oversight Committee hearing was for?

Arya Sundaram: Sure. It was about sanctuary cities. I'm sure we've been hearing this term a lot lately. It's not an official term. It's a term of art, which basically just means places where there are laws or other rules that limit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. Adams wasn't the only person invited. It was also the mayor from Boston, Chicago, Denver, who all have similar sanctuary policies in their cities.

This committee that hosted the hearing was controlled by Republicans. It was clear that they really wanted to take these mayors to task for these policies. Before the hearing, actually, the committee released this dramatic movie trailer-like ad depicting the cities as lawless, teeming with immigrants, highlighting a number of high-profile crimes allegedly by immigrants. A number of social media posts by the committee said that they wanted to hold these mayors publicly accountable, presumably for these crimes and policies.

Sean Carlson: What did Adams say about immigration enforcement in the city?

Arya Sundaram: Adams really had to and did walk this tightrope of at once praising immigrants for their contributions to the city, staffing restaurants and hospitals, and other places across the city. Also, he really clearly supported deporting immigrants who break the law. That's been his stance for quite some time. He also really touted the reductions in major crimes in the city under his watch, a stark contrast to the image of lawlessness and crime painted by the Republicans. He promoted the city's cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

City laws largely prohibit police officers from working with federal immigration officers, but he did say 70 NYPD officers are assigned to task forces with Homeland Security Investigations, which is the law enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security, which also oversees ICE. He was even praised by the committee chairman, James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, about this point.

James Comer: You have publicly stated that you were willing to work with ICE on detaining the most criminal illegals, and I want to publicly thank you for that.

Arya Sundaram: It was mentioned several times that he met with Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, to discuss immigration efforts and how the city exactly would cooperate with Trump's immigration agenda. After the most recent meeting last month, of course, Adams agreed to issue an executive order to reallow ICE to open an office back on Rikers Island.

Sean Carlson: Now, was the Adams experience here in line with the other city mayors who were invited to testify?

Arya Sundaram: Absolutely not. The other mayors were grilled, as the preview suggested, by Comer and the other Republicans. Adams, in comparison, was either largely ignored or even given a pat on the back in some cases. Not just Comer. Another representative, Gary Palmer from Alabama, came to his defense saying Adams was being attacked because of his willingness to cooperate with ICE. Another representative, William Timmons from South Carolina, applauded him for being "the only mayor to stand up to the Biden administration."

The border czar, Homan, he even posted on Twitter in Adams' defense calling Democrats who were attacking him during the hearing simply disgusting. It was just so striking for a Democratic mayor to get so much support from his colleagues across the aisle. Meanwhile, as these other Democratic mayors were really being shaken down.

Janae Pierre: Yes, wow. Democratic lawmakers also took the opportunity to ask Mayor Adams about the federal corruption charges against him and whether or not he's made a deal with the Trump administration. Can you just tell us more about that?

Arya Sundaram: Absolutely. Several Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on Adams' coziness with the Trump administration, directly asking him if he'd made what's called a quid pro quo arrangement with the Trump administration. Specifically, that is, did he promise to carry out Trump's immigration agenda in exchange for prosecutors moving to drop the corruption charges against him? Adams just kept saying the same thing over and over again.

By the end, he sounded exasperated after repeating it so many times. "No deal, no quid pro quo, and I didn't do anything wrong," was the phrase that he just kept on repeating. It honestly didn't clearly seem to satisfy most of the Democrats who asked the question. A few even called for him to resign.

Robert Garcia: Now, I personally agree with the majority of New Yorkers and think, Mr. Mayor, that you should resign. You should do the right thing. You should step down and resign today.

Arya Sundaram: That was Robert Garcia from Long Beach, California. Laura Gillen from Long Island said the same thing.

Sean Carlson: Wow. Mostly Democratic lawmakers are asking Adams the toughest questions. You have some Republicans thanking Adams. It's like the world is turned on its head here. What does it say about Adams' position in the Democratic Party?

Arya Sundaram: Really, I think it's a mark of how estranged he's become from his own party. He stuck his neck out, criticized Biden, didn't show up to the Democratic National Convention, and now he's being praised by Republicans and decried by Democrats. It's really a sign that he's lost the support of his party at this point.

Sean Carlson: It's WNYC reporter Arya Sundaram. Arya, thanks so much.

Arya Sundaram: Thank you.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news, headlines, and occasional deep dives. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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