AoW#14: Kelly Expresses Concern Over Fatal Shooting in Bronx

February 3, 2012

Kelly Expresses Concern Over Fatal Shooting in Bronx

By AL BAKER and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

A police officer who shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old in the bathroom of the teenager’s Bronx apartment has been stripped of his gun and badge, the police commissioner said Friday, and both the commissioner and the mayor expressed concern about the circumstances of the shooting.

The commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, stopped short of declaring the shooting unjustified but said at a news conference: “At this juncture, we see an unarmed person being shot. That always concerns us.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a similar comment, telling reporters outside a pre-Super Bowl event on the Upper East Side, “We obviously have some real concerns, and until we know what really happened there’s not a lot else I can say.”

The commissioner’s remarks, coming less than 24 hours after the teenager, Ramarley Graham, was killed by a plainclothes narcotics officer, were a stark departure for Mr. Kelly, who rarely makes public an early assessment of a shooting.

The fatal shot came shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday. Members of the Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit, who had pursued Mr. Graham based on a report that he was armed, broke open the door to the second-floor apartment where he lived with his family on East 229th Street, Mr. Kelly said.

As the first officer came through, Mr. Graham emerged from the back of the apartment running toward them, then veered into the bathroom, the police said.

“Show me your hands! Show me your hands!” the officer yelled, said Mr. Kelly, who cited the account of a second officer who trailed the first officer into the apartment. The police did not release the names of any of the officers. Mr. Graham was black; the officer who shot him is white.

Inside the apartment, Mr. Kelly said, the first officer, who was in the hallway outside the bathroom, yelled, “Gun! Gun!” suggesting to the officers behind him that Mr. Graham was armed.

“The partner said he then heard a shot,” Mr. Kelly said. “It is at that point we believe the shooting officer fired once from his 9-millimeter service firearm.”

The bullet hit Mr. Graham in the upper chest, striking a lung and his aorta, killing him, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.

Mr. Kelly added that investigators had yet to find evidence that Mr. Graham was armed. “No gun was recovered,” the commissioner said. Rather, the police said, a bag of marijuana was found in the toilet, raising the possibility that Mr. Graham bolted to the bathroom to try to dispose of it.

The shooting will be investigated by the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson, and is likely to be presented to a grand jury. A key factor will be the officers’ state of mind, and whether they had reason to believe that Mr. Graham was armed.

The officer who fired the shot — a 30-year-old who has been on the force since 2008 — has not yet been interviewed by the police because of the pending criminal investigation.

The officer’s sergeant was also stripped of his gun and badge; both are now on “modified duty,” off the streets, for the time being.

“We are still evaluating the actions here,” Mr. Kelly said.

The scene outside Mr. Graham’s home on Friday was tense at times. As the police re-entered the three-family house to execute a search warrant, one bystander on the street yelled, “You killed him because he smoked weed!” Later, dozens of people began shouting toward the officers inside. “Murderers!” many yelled.

Mr. Graham’s family did not speak to reporters, but they retained a lawyer, Jeffrey L. Emdin, who said the police should never have entered the home on Thursday. “When the police are above the law, nobody is safe,” Mr. Emdin said.

Mr. Kelly, recounting Thursday’s events, said the narcotics team had been staking out a bodega at East 228th Street and White Plains Road, after the police had received reports of drug sales out front.

With two friends, Mr. Graham went into the bodega. But they left quickly, and as they did, team members who were observing the bodega radioed their colleagues that they believed one of the three — who they later learned was Mr. Graham — “was armed,” Mr. Kelly said.

The impression that Mr. Graham had a gun was reinforced as officers tracked the three men. The group next went to a home at 728 East 229th Street, where Mr. Graham was spotted leaving with what appeared to be the butt of a gun in his waistband, according to another set of radio transmissions among the narcotics team members.

Two officers wearing raid jackets and bullet-resistant vests emerged from a van and yelled, “Police! Stop! Don’t move!” said Mr. Kelly, citing the account of a civilian witness.

But Mr. Graham made it to his home at 749 East 229th Street, and the front door locked, stymieing officers who were pursuing him with their guns drawn. Another tenant, Gene Davis, 60, said he saw the officers rushing through the outside gate before they reached the door. They yelled at him: “Don’t move! Get back!”

Eventually, a man alerted by the commotion let the sergeant in a back door and told him that Mr. Graham lived on the second floor. The officers then spread out: One stayed on the ground floor; the sergeant stayed on the stairs; and two lead officers went to the apartment and knocked. When no one answered, they “broke open” the door, Mr. Kelly said.

Precisely what happened in the bathroom seconds later is not clear. On Thursday night, the police said Mr. Graham had tussled with an officer, but on Friday, Mr. Kelly said there did not appear to be any evidence of a struggle.

“We don’t believe there was contact,” he said.

The officer yelled, “Gun! Gun!” and then fired, Mr. Kelly said.

The teenager’s grandmother Patricia Hartley was in the hallway. Paulet Minzie, the landlady, who lives on the third floor, said she heard the grandmother shouting at the police: “Why you hitting me? Why you hitting me?”

Mr. Graham’s 6-year-old brother was also screaming, Ms. Minzie said. “He said, ‘They killed my brother!’ ” she related.

Mr. Kelly repeatedly sought to solace Mr. Graham’s mother and grandmother. “Any mother, any parent is going to be terribly affected,” he said. “It is the worst thing that can happen to a parent, is to lose a child, and we certainly sympathize with the family.”

The fatal shooting comes amid an unusually violent period for the police. Officer Peter J. Figoski was fatally shot on Dec. 12 while responding to a report of a robbery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.

Last month, the police in Brooklyn fatally shot an armed man who they mistakenly believed was a robber but was a resident of a house where a home invasion was occurring, and, two weeks later, a carjacking suspect.

And this week, Officer Kevin Brennan was seriously wounded when he was shot in the head after chasing an armed man into a building in Brooklyn.

“These things seem to come in clumps sometimes,” Mr. Kelly said. “Sometimes you see a cluster of them. Generally speaking, I’d say there’s no connectivity.”

Option 1:  
Was the officer justified to shoot because he saw a gun?  Why or why not?   What role does race play, if any, in this case? Explain and use specific evidence to support your response.


Option 2:  Reply to a classmate's post: 

• Summarize the argument made in the previous post and agree or disagree with your classmate.  Be specific by pointing out what you agree with or disagree with.  
• Then add your own response.  Use evidence to support your response.
• Finally, post a meaningful question to keep the conversation going.  

Option 3:  In Twelve Angry Men we discussed the role personal bias plays in the American Judicial System.  What role does bias play in our everyday lives?  In American Society?  Give specific examples to support your response.