By Tom Hays, The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- With demands for a civil rights case mounting, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they were reviewing the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager at a Brooklyn housing project.
U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, in a one-line statement, said her office had “begun a thorough review of the evidence” in the Jan. 24 killing of 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury Jr. A spokesman for Mauskopf declined further comment.
The announcement came one day after a state grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against the shooter, Officer Richard Neri.
Neri has said he doesn’t remember firing a gun and has called the shooting unintentional.
His lawyer, Stuart London, said civil rights charges don’t apply because the officer never sought to harm the victim, who was shot one time in the chest. He predicted that once federal prosecutors examine the case, “they’ll choose not to get involved, based on lack of intent on my client’s part.”
At a news conference on the steps of City Hall, Rep. Charles Rangel insisted a federal probe was warranted. He cited an early comment by police Commissioner Raymond Kelly that the shooting was unjustified.
“If the police commissioner says it appears to be unjustified,” Rangel said, “that’s good enough for me.”
Members of Stansbury’s family, at a Brooklyn news conference, suggested that Neri misled grand jurors.
“They didn’t hear the straight story,” said Timothy Stansbury, the victim’s father. “They didn’t hear the truth. I’m not satisfied.”
On the night of the shooting, Neri and his partner were patrolling building rooftops in the Louis Armstrong Houses when Stansbury and two friends decided to use a roof as a shortcut to another building.
Neri’s partner told investigators that he pulled open a rooftop door so that Neri, his gun drawn, could peer inside for any lurking drug suspects.
Stansbury startled the officers by appearing at the door and moving toward Neri, who responded with one shot, the partner said.
Stansbury’s friends, however, said the teenager made no sudden moves and never got beyond the stairwell landing.
Neri, 35, has been on the police force for nearly 12 years. He will remain on desk duty pending an internal investigation by two police firearms review boards.