Widow’s pain
On tape: Upstate officers mock dying suspect
NINE MONTHS after her husband’s death in police custody, Angelique Negroni-Kearse relived the entire nightmare — at her insistence.
The Bronx widow’s broken heart shattered once more when prosecutors agreed to let her watch the Schenectady police dashcam video showing Andrew Kearse’s anguished final minutes of life.
“It was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever seen,” NegroniKearse told the Daily News on Wednesday. “To see death on his face — it was horrible.
“To see him die is just horrible. Pleading and begging for his life ... just begging for his life, and the officers just ignored him.”
Negroni-Kearse was accompanied by her lawyers and her mother, watching helplessly while her husband died in what felt like slow motion.
“He was literally saying ‘I can’t breathe’ and ‘Please, I’m begging you to open the window,’ ” she said. “It’s horrible. And this is a person who is supposed to protect and serve.”
The widow saw the footage in the office of upstate prosecutors investigating the case with the state police. She taped the audio and opted to make the 45-minute recording public.
“I want justice for Andrew and I want that cop to go to jail,” Negroni-Kearse said in explaining her choice. “You can hear my husband in distress. He was in the back seat, handcuffed, gasping for air.”
The audio released by Negroni-Kearse includes 25 minutes in which her husband was inside the police car with the arresting officers back on May 11, 2017.
“The attorney general’s office will have a decision soon on whether they will convene a grand jury,” said NegroniKearse’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.
Though Kearse, 36, was clearly having trouble breathing, the arresting officers offered no assistance.
“Please, please, sir,” Kearse says at one point as he struggles to catch his breath. “I can’t breathe! Please! Sir! Yo!”
Kearse — on parole for grand larceny at the time of his arrest — tried run off after cops pulled him over for driving erratically. He was taken back into custody.
As he begged the arresting officers to get him help, one of the cops sarcastically made reference to Kearse’s decision to flee.
“Is it hot?” one of the cops inquires. “You probably shouldn’t run next time.”
Though medical officials performed an autopsy on Kearse, police have yet to make those findings public.
To see him die is just horrible. Pleading and begging for his life... just begging for his life, and the officers just ignored him. Angelique Negroni-Kearse