NYPD cop who shot Ramarley Graham should be fired, protesters say

Family of an unarmed Bronx teen shot dead by an NYPD officer in 2012, furious at this week’s announcement that the shooter will go unprosecuted, went to City Hall Thursday to demand his firing.

Chanting and flanked by members of the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, the mother of Ramarley Graham said her grief is compounded by Officer Richard Haste’s continued presence on the police force, as well as that of others involved in the case.

“These officers should not be running around with a gun or a badge,” Constance Malcolm, the 18-year-old’s mother, said in the City Hall plaza. “They murdered my son.”

Speaking in the Bronx later in the day, Police Commissioner William Bratton said the officers involved had been served with internal charges and the case is “now in the hands of the department advocate” — the NYPD’s in-house prosecutor — “and he will be putting his case together and going forward.”

At the rally, leaders of the 26-member council caucus released a letter to Bratton saying that “Officer Haste’s continued service on the police force is neither safe nor just.”

The fatal encounter began Feb. 2, 2012, when narcotics cops became suspicious of Graham as he walked through a Bronx neighborhood with friends. Radio traffic indicates they believed he was armed.

They chased him to his family’s apartment, and, without a warrant, busted in and shot him, mistaking a gesture by the teen as a reach for a weapon. Marijuana was found in the toilet, but no gun.

A state grand jury had initially indicted the cop, but that case was dismissed because of a prosecutorial mistake. A second grand jury declined to indict. The city settled a civil case with the teen’s family for $3.9 million.

Earlier this week, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, announced that there was insufficient evidence to charge Haste with a federal crime.

Assemblyman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) said that the lack of any prosecution and Haste’s employment with the NYPD put the city in jeopardy for unrest.

“Warning! Warning!” Barron said. “When peaceful methods for justice are ignored, violence is inevitable.”

— With Anthony M. DeStefano

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.