NEW YORK - The NYPD released video Thursday afternoon that it says shows the man shot dead by police officers Wednesday afternoon pointing a metal pipe at people on the streets of Crown Heights.

The video also includes transcripts of 911 calls that the NYPD says were made as the man was spotted on the streets.

"There's a guy walking around the street, he looks like he's crazy but he's pointing something at people that looks like it's a gun and he's like popping it as if like he's pulling the trigger," one of the 911 callers said, according to the NYPD video.

The incident happened on Utica Avenue and Montgomery Street in Crown Heights around 4:30 p.m.

Police said officers were investigating several 911 calls of a man, later identified as Saheed Vassell, 34, pointing what they said appeared to be a silver firearm at people on the street.

Police said Vassell "took a two-handed shooting stance'' and approached the officers.

Four officers, three in plainclothes and one in uniform, then fired a total of 10 shots, striking the man, police said.

Vassell later died at the hospital.

The pipe seen at right was recovered at the scene. It's what Vassell was holding at the time of the shooting.

The NYPD also released photos, which they say shows the shooting stance Vassell took before police opened fire.

They say the responding officers were not wearing body cameras.

Vassell's family that he had a history of mental illness and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 

Community activists are expected to hold a rally Thursday to protest the shooting.

Because of the immediate, imminent situation, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that officers wouldn't have had all the information when they were responding to the call.

"Multiple reports of a man with a gun, aiming a gun at citizens. That is not a garden variety situation," de Blasio said. "So if that's what officers are responding to in real time, you've got to recognize that they believed they were dealing with an immediate matter of life and death to the people in the surrounding area. That's an exceedingly difficult, tense decision to have to make."

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says his office will investigate the shooting.

Crown Heights shooting
Above: The NYPD says these surveillance camera stills show Saheed Vassell pointing what was later determined to be a pipe.