Contrary to Initial Reports There Was No Struggle When Police Shot a Bronx Teen

  

Commissioner Ray Kelly clarified yesterday that contrary to earlier reports, no struggle occurred between 18-year-old Ramarley Graham and the officer who fatally shot him in the bathroom of his Bronx home on Thursday. The Post reports that the two officers involved have been stripped of their weapons and assigned to desk duty, and the case will be presented to a grand jury to determine whether a crime was committed. "We're still evaluating the actions here," Kelly said. "We see an unarmed person being shot. That always concerns us."

According to Kelly, a narcotics team observing Graham making a drug deal (which we now know was a small amount of marijuana) noted over radio communications twice that it appeared that Graham had a gun because of the way he was adjusting his waistband.

Two officers then followed Graham to his house; unable to enter through the front door, they gained entry through the back, and then broke down the door to Graham's second-story apartment. The Commissioner stated that the 30-year-old officer who shot Graham shouted "Police! Don't move. Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!" before firing. Graham's 58-year-old grandmother, Patricia Hartley, was in the apartment at the time of the shooting and was allegedly questioned by the police aggressively for seven hours.

"To the mayor of this city, to the police commissioner of this city: we are sick and tired of this shit," a lawyer for the landlord told NY1 in a press conference shortly before a rally to protest the incident. Several hundred people, including neighbors and family members, marched from Graham's home last night to the 47th Precinct to express their outrage.

"They think the badge they carry on their chest is a license to kill people," Delmar Scott, Graham's brother told ABC. A neighbor added, "I think they shoot first and ask questions later."

In a statement lamenting the recent spate of violence in the last week, Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. said, “I’ve had enough, on all sides. I cannot and will not tolerate incidents of police misconduct. It is especially disturbing that a young man, who did not have a gun and was in his own home, could see his life end in such a sudden manner at the hands of those charged with his protection." Diaz adds, "A full investigation into this incident must occur, and immediately."

And Eric Stevenson, an Assemblyman from the Bronx, will attend a press conference today to address the issue of the brutal beating of Jateik Reed at the hands of the NYPD. " It only makes me wonder if this is an open season for eliminating minority youth," Stevenson says in a statement. "I will look into supporting legislation in creating an independent agency that oversees these police brutality cases. I am sick and tired of seeing this happening under my watch."

Graham is the third suspect this week killed at the hands of the NYPD.

via  gothamist.com