Teen kills pa, blasts kids at S.C. school
SECURITY VIDEO obtained by the Daily News shows the moment that 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was carried out of his home after being shot by police in 2012.
The video taken on Feb. 2, 2012, shows paramedics carrying Graham, strapped to a backboard, out of the house and putting him on a stretcher.
One of the paramedics then appears to cover Graham’s face with a sheet, before peeling back a bit of the sheet.
Graham was unarmed in his home on E. 229th St. in the Bronx when was shot through the heart by Officer Richard Haste. Cops initially went to his house after receiving a report that he had a gun, but after the confrontation, no gun was found.
Police officials initially said that Graham died at Montefiore Medical Center. His death certificate says he was shot at 3:01 p.m. and died at 3:53 p.m.
According his family, the video indicates he was already dead, and contradicts the city account.
“We know for a fact he died in the house,” said Graham’s mother, Constance Malcolm, 44, a nurse’s assistant. “Why did they throw a sheet over him, and then peel it back? Because there were a lot of people watching, and they wanted to make it seem like he was still alive.”
Malcolm said that if Graham was dead, his body should not have been moved to preserve critical evidence.
“They disturbed the crime scene,” she said. “It was important to know how the body was positioned, and they could have lost other evidence that was needed.”
The NYPD said last week that Haste will finally face a departmental trial in the case, before the end of the year.
Graham’s family has been sharply critical of the fact that the NYPD has taken so long to try him.
Haste was previously charged with manslaughter, and he pleaded guilty. But a Bronx judge vacated the indictment, ruling that the grand jury had been given flawed instructions.
A second grand jury decided not to reindict him.
Graham’s family settled their lawsuit against the city for $3.9 million in January 2015.
Elsewhere in approximately 40 minutes of video given to The News, Graham is seen calmly walking into the home, followed soon after by Haste and a second officer, guns drawn. Haste begins kicking the door to get inside.
The video shows at least two dozen officers responding to the scene at one point or another, along with paramedics.
The video also shows Haste letting other cops into the house, after he got in through the back door.
It shows Ramarley’s 6-year-old brother put outside by the police without a winter coat or jacket.
Graham’s relatives have been pleading for years with the de Blasio administration to release the list of responding officers and a range of other information.
Malcolm said that four years later, there are still too many unanswered questions.
“The video only raises more questions,” she said. “This was an unlawful entry, and there was a lot of misconduct. We don’t even know what happened to the other officers who were there.”
On Thursday, Graham’s family will file a Freedom of Information Law request asking in detail for those details and will note that as public advocate, the mayor called for a “fair, speedy and transparent investigation” days after Graham died.
An NYPD spokesman referred questions to the Fire Department, saying cops don’t pronounce people dead. That’s up to paramedics and doctors.
A spokesman for the FDNY declined to comment. EIGHT CITY Council members refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on Wednesday, joining a protest started by City Councilman Jumaane Williams earlier this month. Williams has received racist hate mail and calls to “drop dead” since saying he would not recite the Pledge in protest of injustices including killings by police and gun violence. Seven other pols remained seated as the rest of the body pledged to the flag at Wednesday’s Council meeting. “I’ll remain seated in an act of solidarity and patriotism,” said Councilman Brad Lander, who, like Williams, is a Brooklyn Democrat. Council members Carlos Menchaca, Antonio Reynoso, Rafael Espinal, and Inez Barron of Brooklyn, Andy King of the Bronx, and Ruben Wills of Queens also participated in the protest. A 14-YEAR-OLD boy shot and killed his father before wounding three people — two of them kids — outside a South Carolina elementary school Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Two students and one teacher at Townville Elementary School were wounded when the shooter got out of a car and blasted away near a playground before 2 p.m.
One boy, Jacob Hall, 6, was hospitalized in critical condition, but the other boy was treated and released, authorities said.
The teacher, identified by local media as first-grade instructor Meghan Hollingsworth, was hit in the shoulder and also released.
The teen gunman was taken into custody by a volunteer firefighter who held him near the playground until police arrived, according to Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Keith Smith.
Authorities said they later found the suspect’s father dead in a home about 3 miles away. Jeffrey Osborne, 47, suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
The Anderson County coroner said Osborne’s body was discovered by the gunman’s grandparents after he called them crying at 1:44 p.m.