NYPD Cop Shoots Unarmed 18-Year-Old, Third NYPD Shooting In One Week
By Jeremy Unger
Community activists and family members continue to protest the shooting of an unarmed suspect by NYPD in the Bronx last Thursday, the third NYPD shooting in the last week. 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was shot once by an officer after fleeing into his home when police attempted to arrest him for allegedly participating in a drug deal.
Graham was allegedly attempting to dispose of the small amount of marijuana he had on him when the two officers, whose names have not been released, entered through the back door and confronted him in the bathroom. The 30-year-old officer who shot Graham then reportedly said, “Police! Don’t move. Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!” But the only other person in the apartment, Graham’s grandmother, Patricia Hartley, said she did not hear any such statement by the officers.
Police Chief Ray Kelly spoke over the weekend about the Graham family’s situation, and the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on desk duty and have had their weapons taken. “We’re still evaluating the actions here,” Kelly said. “We see an unarmed person being shot. That always concerns us.”
The officers’ actions have come under scrutiny for not presenting a search warrant and also firing at a man who did not have a weapon on neither his person or in his apartment, which was searched after. Its been a difficult start to the year for the NYPD; hundreds of New Yorkers protested the NYPD’s use of a controversial anti-Islam film last month entitled, “The Third Jihad”, and just last week there were two other off-duty officer shootings; one killing a suspect who first shot at an officer on January 26 and the other killing a man in Bushwick who attempted to mug the officer.
While the previous shootings and controversies have a been a black eye for the department, it appears that the Graham shooting could become a much more serious issue. If Kelly decides to pursue criminal charges, a grand jury could soon get to decide whether the officers will face trial for the shooting, which would almost certainly become a public spectacle because of the many lingering questions. “Why would you break in a house and shoot a young man and kill him?” Reverend Al Sharpton told Gothamist. “You cannot get to a conclusion without starting with the premise. The premise is wrong. They had no business breaking in the house.”
