New York cop pleads not guilty in deadly shooting of unarmed Black teen

By Colleen Long Associated Press | Last updated: Jun 22, 2012 - 11:26:06 AM

NEW YORK - A police officer was indicted recently in the death of an unarmed drug suspect, the first time a New York City officer has faced criminal charges in a fatal shooting since a groom was killed in a 50-shot police barrage on his wedding day in 2006.

New York Police Department Officer Richard Haste, 31, surrendered June 13. Ofc. Haste pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in a courtroom filled with other officers, relatives of 18-year-old victim Ramarley Graham and their supporters.

“Ramarley was only 18,” his mother, Constance Malcolm, said outside court. “We have too much of this going on and it has to stop. We need it to stop. We can’t keep killing our kids. It has to stop. Something has to come out of this.”

As Ofc. Haste left the courtroom after posting $50,000 bail, dozens of officers applauded him. He was on crutches because of an unrelated accident and walked slowly to a car, while a small group of protesters chanted anti-police slogans behind him.

The February shooting stemmed from an NYPD investigation of a persistent drug trade in the Bronx neighborhood where young Graham lived. At the time, police said investigators identified Mr. Graham as a potential suspect and radioed to other officers that he appeared to be armed with a pistol.

A witness told police that around the same time, two officers wearing NYPD jackets pulled up and yelled at a man—apparently Mr. Graham—“Police! Don’t move!”

After the man ducked into the Graham’s three-family home, the officers found a back entrance, climbed some stairs and broke down the door to a second-floor apartment where Mr. Graham lived with his grandmother and other relatives, police said.

An officer positioned behind Ofc. Haste reported seeing Mr. Graham run toward a bathroom. He also heard Ofc. Haste yell, “Show me your hands!” and “Gun! Gun!” before a shot rang out, police said.

Crammed together in the tiny bathroom, Mr. Haste yelled for Mr. Graham to hold up his hands, and when the teen reached for his waistband, the officer fired, according to his lawyer, Stuart London.

“I thought he was going to shoot me, so I shot him,” Ofc. Haste said in a court statement read by Atty. London.

Mr. Haste fired one shot at close range from his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, police said. Mr. Graham was struck in the upper chest and collapsed in the bathroom. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A search of the apartment didn’t turn up any weapons. Police said they found marijuana in the toilet.

Officers are allowed to use deadly force when they have a reasonable belief that they are facing an imminent threat of serious injury or death.

But in the small Bronx bathroom, it was obvious there was no gun, and Ofc. Haste should not have fired, District Attorney Robert Johnson said.

“He had to know that he did not see a gun,” he said.

The family has said Mr. Graham was shot as his grandmother and his six-year-old brother looked on.

Outside court, a large group of supporters said they are holding vigils every Thursday in the Bronx for 18 weeks to celebrate the teen’s life.

His father, Frank Malcolm, broke down weeping when he said the boy wouldn’t be home for Father’s Day.

“Haste is going home to his family. When we leave here we’re going to the cemetery,” he said. “I keep asking why. Why did he kill our son?”

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered a review of whether training and tactics were sufficient in the street narcotics division, where Ofc. Haste worked. The division differs from full-time narcotics police, who are more specialized. Mr. Haste had been on the force for four years and in the unit just weeks before the shooting. He had never before fired his weapon in the line of duty.

“Today, we’re here to show support for a New York City police officer who was put in a terrible position doing a difficult job,” police union president Patrick Lynch said outside courthouse as protesters chanted, “NYPD. KKK. How many kids will you kill today?”

Supporters of Graham’s family said they worry officers were expecting trouble simply because Mr. Graham was Black. They also say Ofc. Haste, who is White, used excessive force.

Complaints against New York City police rising (FCN, 07-03-2009)

New Yorkers vow to fight for justice for father killed in hail of 50 bullets (FCN, 05-06-2008)

Mistrial declared for former cop shot 28 times by police (FCN, 06-01-2007)

New York police chief racially profiled? (FCN, 06-04-2008)