NYPD Officer Richard Haste fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Ramarley Graham last month in his family's Williamsbridge home, and his colleague tells the Daily News that while he feels remorse, he also thought Graham was armed. "He didn't want the kid to die. He feels bad. But it happened very fast," the colleague said. "He thought he was carrying, that's why he did what he did. He had a split second to react."
Graham's death is still being investigated by the Bronx DA's office, but a source tells the paper that they were "extremely surprised" that Haste was not trained in street level narcotics enforcement or plainclothes police work before working the narcotics sting where Graham was allegedly seen buying marijuana. "That really stood out," the source said, adding that "a lot of work has to be done" before the investigation reaches a conclusion.
"It's all well and good to say you're remorseful...but that doesn't take away from the fact that a young man who committed no crime is dead," the Graham's lawyer Jeffrey Emdin says. "The officers didn't belong in his home in the first place." Graham was allegedly killed as he dumped a small bag of marijuana into the toilet. Haste and his supervising officer have been stripped of their guns and badges pending the outcome of the investigation.
DNAinfo reports that in 2010, Graham's father's family was advised to move to the Bronx after an incident in which NYPD officers used mace and batons on four teenagers outside their Harlem home. "My suggestion to them was to move out of Harlem to the Bronx," an attorney for the beaten teens said.
All the charges against the teens were later dismissed, but an event was held in August of 2010 at a Harlem mosque to highlight police brutality. "The event was trying to bring attention to it so that type of thing wouldn't happen going forward," the organizer of the event, Abdul Kareem Muhammad said. "It's coincidental that two years later he loses another son to the NYPD."
