A New York City police officer has been stripped of his badge and gun days after video evidence raised questions about his account of a deadly off-duty shooting.
Police officials say that officer Wayne Isaacs is on modified desk duty pending an investigation by the state attorney general’s office into the fatal July 4 shooting of Delrawn Small, 37, The Associated Press reported Monday.
Isaacs, also 37, reportedly told police he fatally shot Small because he’d reached through Isaacs’ car window and punched the off-duty officer at least twice in the face during a road-rage scuffle in Brooklyn.
But surveillance video obtained by the New York Post and released last Friday appears to show Isaacs shooting Small as soon as he approaches his window, casting doubt on the officer’s version of events.
In the black and white footage above, Small can be seen stumbling away from Isaacs’ car and falling into the road after being shot. The off-duty officer then gets out of his car and appears to briefly stand over Small before returning to his vehicle.
“There is clearly not enough time for [Isaacs] to have been punched,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told the New York Daily News after reviewing the video. “This is absolutely the opposite of what the policeman said.”
The video sparked a public outcry in a week that saw two other black men killed by officers in Louisiana and Minnesota, and five police officers killed by a sniper in Dallas.
Both Small and Isaacs are black, but Sharpton said that didn’t alter the urgency of protesters’ calls for justice and accountability.
“We are not against black cops or white cops — we are against wrong cops,” Sharpton told the Daily News. “This cop told a story that is wrong and someone lost their life. If he told a story that doesn’t stand up about his alibi, why should we believe anything else he says? He killed a man.”
Many protesters carried “Black Lives Matter” signs, as well as signs reading “Prosecute Killer Cops,” “Don’t Shoot” and “Against Police Tyranny.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has vowed a “full, fair and independent investigation of this tragedy.”
“As our investigation continues, we urge any witnesses who may have additional information to come forward to our office. My heart goes out to the Small family during this painful period,” he said in a release.
