This story contains transcripts using obscenities and footage that some may find disturbing.
ITHACA, N.Y. — An employee at Tompkins County’s only homeless shelter used a chokehold on a man staying at the shelter while threatening to physically hurt him. Records reviewed by The Ithaca Voice show the incident occurred on Saturday night — one of the coldest of this winter so far.
The incident was captured in a 14-second long cell phone video as well as on security footage obtained by The Ithaca Voice. Two former shelter workers, when asked by the Voice to review the footage, said such an incident “should have never happened;” the shelter’s leadership called the video “upsetting.”
Multiple shelter clients and homeless advocates have reported an ongoing pattern of troubling behavior on the part of shelter staff in recent months. Several advocates expressed concern that the shelter is becoming dangerous for the population it exists to serve, much like the other designated places for unhoused people, such as the encampment known as “the Jungle” or the local motels used as seasonal shelters.
Several sources identified the man in the chokehold as 63-year-old Carmen DeChellis. DeChellis, a longtime Ithaca resident, has stayed at the shelter frequently over the past few winters.
In the cell phone clip, the employee uses his forearm to push against DeChellis’ throat, pinning the older man to the ground. DeChellis’ back is pushed against a small set of stairs. The employee can be heard telling DeChellis that he would “fucking hurt” DeChellis if he “put [his] hands” on the staffer, before getting up and walking away.
The following is a transcript of the cell phone video.
SHELTER WORKER: …I will hurt you. Do you understand me?
DECHELLIS: unintelligible
SHELTER WORKER: I will fucking hurt you, do you understand me? Don’t you ever put your hands — don’t you ever put your hands on me.
Security footage obtained by the Voice shows DeChellis and the employee standing in front of the entrance to a room labeled as a “reception area.” A witness said DeChellis had asked the employee for some juice or water, which appears to have prompted an argument.
DeChellis appears to attempt to slap the employee’s hands away. The employee then appears to push DeChellis, who falls and gets back up. The employee then pushes DeChellis down onto the stairs a second time and pins him there. A second employee notices DeChellis fall the first time and approaches the two but does not intervene.
Local homeless advocate Tony Sidle told The Ithaca Voice that he understands the often volatile nature of working with the unhoused population. But, he said, using verbal or physical aggression with a shelter client, many of whom are struggling with either addiction or a mental health issue, has always been expressly prohibited.
The Voice also spoke with four other local advocates, all of whom echoed Sidle’s message.
“I don’t know what Carmen [DeChellis] did, but I’d be willing to bet he brought the worst out of somebody,” Sidle said. “But it’s not just Carmen that this has happened to. They just caught this one on video.”
DeChellis has been arrested several times for a variety of relatively small but troubling offenses which include using human waste as a weapon in prison and punching outgoing Tompkins County Court Judge John Rowley while intoxicated in 2017.
Several former shelter and outreach workers also said DeChellis has struggled with alcoholism and had caused problems at the shelter in the past. DeChellis has occasionally used racial slurs when inebriated—the man pinning DeChellis to the ground is Black; DeChellis is white. It is not clear whether DeChellis used any racial slurs during or in the lead-up to the incident.
Sidle acknowledged these behavioral issues, but said people like DeChellis can be representative of the population the shelter is meant to serve. Sidle said for him and other advocates, the actions of the employee in the video point to a larger and more concerning issue of rising tension between staff and the vulnerable clients at the shelter.
George Liacopoulos, deputy CEO for St. John’s Community Services, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that operates Ithaca’s homeless shelter, said the employee in the video is currently on administrative leave and an internal investigation is underway.
“The video is very upsetting,” Liacopoulos said. “It does not represent who we are as an organization, or how staff are trained to respond in situations that need de-escalation.”
Liacopoulos described DeChellis’ actions prior to the incident as an “assault on the staff person,” but said the employee’s response was “not appropriate” and “not in line with de-escalation training and how staff is prepared to respond in those situations.”
Liacopoulos added that Saturday was the employee’s second day on the job.
One shelter client, who said he has a close relationship with DeChellis, said the older man had stayed the rest of Saturday night in the shelter, but as of Tuesday, he hadn’t seen DeChellis since the incident.
“I haven’t seen [DeChellis] in three days,” the person said. “I don’t know if he’s okay or not, I just know that his back was really killing him, he said. His back was really hurt.”
The Ithaca Voice was unable to locate DeChellis for comment in time for publication.
Police responded to the incident shortly before 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night. It is not clear who called the police or when. Officers checked to see if DeChellis had any outstanding warrants — he does not — but did not appear to do the same for any other individuals. Police scanner records reviewed by the Voice do not indicate that an ambulance was called.
Former shelter director Chris Teitelbaum said that while he did not know the context for the incident, it would not have been an appropriate response during his tenure.
“It’s not a safe takedown. [DeChellis] is pinned against stairs. He’s an elderly guy. I don’t see anything safe or appropriate about this response,” Teitelbaum said. “And to say, ‘I’m gonna hurt you’? To me, that’s the most important thing. If this is a staff member and he’s telling a client ‘I’m going to hurt you if you do anything.’ It’s so sudden and inappropriate.”
Teitelbaum, who managed the shelter until last spring, said the incident would have been against shelter protocol.
“We never want this to happen,” Teitelbaum said. “You’re always gonna want to try to de-escalate [the situation] and if the client can’t be de-escalated, get other people away from them, and then you call the police.”
Teitelbaum described an earlier incident where a different employee used a chokehold type restraint on a shelter client, which he said led to the employee’s termination.
A client at the shelter described frequent clashes between shelter staff and people staying there. The man declined to be named for fear of reprisal by shelter staff. The client said he has occasionally spent the night in the shelter over the past three months but prefers to avoid doing so because he doesn’t trust the staff.
One advocate, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said he has begun to hear concerns and complaints about staff from shelter clients on a near daily basis.
“I used to be homeless myself back in 2016, 2017,” the advocate said. “And the shelter, from what it used to be to what it is now, it [has been] a drastic change for the worst.”
Multiple advocates said the shelter’s policies — and the way they are enforced — have changed in recent months. Some changes, like stricter enforcement of the shelter’s pet policy, have prompted some people to risk dangerously cold outdoor temperatures to avoid a shelter stay.
A metal detector was recently installed at the shelter door, similar to the one installed at the entrance of the nearby Department of Social Services building. Clients reported being searched and treated rudely as they entered the building.
Richard Rivera, a longtime advocate who regularly works with Ithaca’s homeless population, said he feels like the additional security measures have contributed to an already troubling dynamic among shelter workers and clients.
It’s pushing some people to abandon the shelter entirely, opting instead for more impromptu living situations or risk freezing temperatures sleeping outdoors.
“[Unhoused people] prefer to be in either the Jungle or one of their friend’s apartments,” Rivera said. “They don’t let you have dogs at the shelter. They don’t allow you to come in with a backpack with something you’d use in the Jungle, like a tool, they consider it a weapon. So [people] find it easier to go to the Jungle.”
Former outreach worker Jade Brewer said their clients have reported other troubling behaviors at the shelter. Brewer said one staff member had a habit of throwing away clients’ belongings, including important identification documents and family photos on at least one occasion.
“I’ve only witnessed a total lack of trauma-informed care,” Brewer said.
Brewer and other advocates said that staff will sometimes have clients sleep on the floor even when there are beds available and often threaten to call the police if clients complain.
More people have been turning to the St. John’s facility for shelter in recent weeks as icy weather moves in and out of the region. Wind chill values on the night of the incident hit a low of -5 F, according to the National Weather Service.
Tompkins County is looking to expand its current shelter capacity. It’s not yet clear if the county will partner with St. John’s Community Services to operate the new or expanded shelter.
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