NYPD cop who shot Ramarley Graham should be
fired, protesters say
By Matthew Chayes
Family of an unarmed Bronx teen shot dead by an
NYPD officer in 2012, furious at this week’s announcement that the shooter will go unprosecuted, went
to City Hall Thursday to demand his firing.
Chanting and flanked by members of the City
Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, the mother of Ramarley Graham said
her grief is compounded by Officer Richard Haste’s continued presence on the
police force, as well as that of others involved in the case.
“These
officers should not be running around with a gun or a badge,” Constance
Malcolm, the 18-year-old’s mother, said in the City Hall plaza. “They murdered
my son.”
Speaking in the Bronx later in the day, Police
Commissioner William Bratton said the officers involved had been served with
internal charges and the case is “now in the hands of the department advocate”
— the NYPD’s in-house prosecutor — “and he will be putting his case together
and going forward.”
At the rally, leaders of the 26-member council
caucus released a letter to Bratton saying that “Officer Haste’s continued
service on the police force is neither safe nor just.”
The fatal encounter began Feb. 2, 2012, when
narcotics cops became suspicious of Graham as he walked through a Bronx
neighborhood with friends. Radio traffic indicates they believed he was armed.
They chased him to his family’s apartment, and,
without a warrant, busted in and shot him, mistaking a gesture by the teen as a
reach for a weapon. Marijuana was found in the toilet, but no gun.
A state grand jury
had initially indicted the cop, but that case was dismissed because of a
prosecutorial mistake. A second grand jury declined to indict. The city settled
a civil case with the teen’s family for $3.9 million.
Earlier this week, the U.S. attorney for the
Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, announced that there was
insufficient evidence to charge Haste with a federal crime.
Assemblyman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) said
that the lack of any prosecution and Haste’s employment with the NYPD put the
city in jeopardy for unrest.
won’t
bring charges in Graham case
“Warning! Warning!” Barron said. “When peaceful
methods for justice are ignored, violence is inevitable.”
— With Anthony M. DeStefano
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