Two days after an NYPD Department Trial recommended firing the cop who fatally shot an unarmed Bronx teenager in 2012, the officer in question, Richard Haste, quit the NYPD. But the mother of victim Ramarley Graham is far from satisfied, arguing that "Richard Haste should have been in prison but instead of even firing him, the de Blasio administration let him resign."
Ramarley Graham
On February 2nd, 2012, Graham, 18, was chased into his Bronx home by two narcotics police officers who believed he was making a drug deal. The officers allegedly broke down the door to Graham's apartment and shot him in the bathroom. A small amount of marijuana was found in the toilet. Then-police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that the officers yelled at Graham, "Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!", but his grandmother, who was in the apartment at the time, maintains she didn't hear them say that.
Haste, who was not trained in street level narcotics enforcement or plainclothes police work, was put on modified duty while he faced criminal manslaughter charges. Those charges were thrown out in 2013 over a procedural error. The Department of Justice declined to prosecute him last year, leaving his fate in the hands of an NYPD Departmental Trial.
Last night, the NYPD issued this statement, "On Sunday March 26th, Police Officer Richard Haste decided to quit the NYPD upon being informed that on Friday March 24th the Department Trial Commissioner found him guilty on all counts and recommended his employment be terminated. Police Commissioner O’Neill has fully concurred with the findings and recommendations of the Trial Commissioner."
Mayor Bill de Blasio followed up with his own announcement:
Ramarley Graham was a son, a friend and, most importantly, a young man with his whole life left to live. Nothing can take away the profound pain left after his loss, but I hope the conclusion of this difficult process brings some measure of justice to those who loved him.
The NYPD disciplinary trial of Richard Haste ended with the right decision: termination.Our administration has taken unprecedented steps to strengthen the relationship between police and our neighborhoods, and increase transparency through important reforms -- from retraining the entire force, to deploying body cameras on officers. We are relentless in our efforts to ensure that lives will be saved as a result of the unspeakable loss of Ramarley Graham.
Graham's mother, Constance Malcolm did not agree. For the past five years, Malcolm has been calling attention to the situation, writing an op-ed for the NY Times last month: "To this day, none of the officers responsible have been fired. In fact, the officer who pulled the trigger, Richard Haste, still works for the Police Department, which paid him $94,000 last year. It has allowed him to accrue time in the department and enjoy the raises that go with that. Although he has been stripped of his gun and put on desk duty, his pay last year was $30,000 more than it was when he killed Ramarley in 2012."
Here's Malcolm's full statement:
My son Ramarley was gunned down and murdered by NYPD Officer Richard Haste over 5 years ago. Richard Haste should have been in prison but instead of even firing him, the de Blasio administration let him resign. This is just another example that the de Blasio administration doesn't care about justice and accountability. Every step of the way, the Mayor and NYPD have dragged their heels and have refused to hold officers accountable for murdering my son.
5 years after my son was killed, they made me take off work to sit through a trial while in the end, they let Richard Haste off the hook, and are continuing to give the other officers responsible for killing Ramarley and other misconduct every opportunity to escape accountability. They haven't even scheduled the trials for Sgt Morris or McLoughlin - the only 2 officers that even have internal charges against them. How is my youngest son supposed to trust and believe in cops when he saw they murdered his brother in front of him and there is zero accountability?
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito also thanked O'Neill for holding the disciplinary hearing: "Ramarley Graham's life was needlessly cut short when Richard Haste fired the fatal shot that killed yet another unarmed black man in our City. While the vast majority of NYPD officers serve our City honorably, those accused of misconduct must be thoroughly investigated and disciplined accordingly. The dismissal of Richard Haste from the NYPD is necessary and appropriate and I thank Commissioner O’Neil and the NYPD for convening a disciplinary trial to address this serious matter and for taking this long overdue action."
The Graham family settled with the city for $3.9 million in 2015.
