The NYPD made a tentative offer six months ago to Officer Richard Haste — who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in the Bronx in 2012 — that would have allowed him to keep his job. But the department pulled back the offer the same day after checking “upstairs,” according to police sources. “Upstairs,” in police lingo, refers to the commissioner’s office.
The offer, which one of the sources said “involved something less than dismissal,” was made by the department advocate’s office, the NYPD’s prosecutorial arm. The sources would not specify the details of the offer.
It is unclear what the offer or its withdrawal signifies. But it may reflect the tough political climate the department faces in NYC and its apparent difficulty in resolving a case in which no criminal charges were brought against an officer whose actions led to the death of a civilian.
Haste shot Graham in the bathroom of his apartment, believing Graham had a gun. The officer was cleared of federal civil rights charges last week. In his decision, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara cited a radio transmission that inaccurately stated Graham had a gun. Bharara said the government could not establish that Haste did not have a reasonable belief Graham was armed.
In 2012, a grand jury indicted Haste on a charge of manslaughter, but a judge dismissed the charges, citing improper instructions from the Bronx DA’s office. A year later, a second grand jury voted not to indict Haste.
However the department decides Haste’s case, it will not be an easy call. The NYPD can cite his and his supervisor’s poor tactical decision to allow Haste to rush into Graham’s apartment rather than wait for backup. But, said a department official, “Does a tactical judgment warrant termination? It might be hard to fire someone, even for a wrongful death, when two bodies, state and federal, found the officer not guilty.”
Haste isn’t the only NYPD cop on the hot seat. Officer Daniel Pantaleo, whose actions led to the so-called “chokehold” death of Eric Garner on Staten Island in 2014, is under investigation for possible civil rights violations by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. A Staten Island grand jury previously declined to indict him. Whether the feds’ dropping of civil rights charges against Haste will affect the NYPD investigation of Pantaleo is unclear.
But if no charges are filed, the department will find itself in as difficult a situation with Pantaleo as it now faces with Haste.
