Sgt. acquitted in shoot in line for promotion
THE NYPD sergeant who fatally shot a mentally ill Bronx woman is on track to become a lieutenant — setting the stage for a difficult decision for the city’s top cop.
Sgt. Hugh Barry, was acquitted on a murder charge in February — after claiming his fatal shooting of Deborah Danner was self-defense.
Danner, 66, was inside her apartment when Barry shot her.
She was wielding a bat and ignored Sgt. Barry’s orders to drop it, he said at his trial.
The mentally ill woman was swinging the bat at him when he shot her, Barry said.
The sergeant had already persuaded the woman to drop a pair of scissors after he and three other officers responded to a call for an emotionally disturbed person on Oct. 18, 2016, he said.
Danner was ranting and cursing at police after dropping the shears and then ran back into her bedroom where the bat was, according to Barry’s testimony.
The sergeant is still on modified duty and working a desk job with no gun or shield.
The NYPD has filed departmental charges against him — accusing him of using poor tactics and failing to supervise the other officers involved at the scene, a police source said.
Barry could return to full duty if he beats the departmental charges — or if he is convicted but the NYPD stops short of firing him.
At that point, he would be eligible to become a lieutenant.
But Police Commissioner James O’Neill has the authority to deny a promotion — even if the officer is being selected off a civil service list.
O’Neill incurred the wrath of the police unions when, shortly after Danner was killed, he said the NYPD “failed” her.
And Mayor de Blasio said Danner, a paranoid schizophrenic, “should not have died.”
Ed Mullins, the head of the sergeants union and among O’Neill’s sharpest critics, said cops have taken to calling the top cop “O’Kneel” for his perceived deference to the mayor.
Mullins said Friday that he doubted O’Neill would promote Barry “unless he goes out and buys a bag of courage.”
Barry’s trial, decided by a judge instead of a jury, focused on the department’s treatment of the mentally ill — a source of criticism from many in the past.
The NYPD over the last several years has moved to improve its handling of emotionally disturbed people.
Prosecutors argued that Barry, who joined the NYPD in July 2008, escalated the encounter by not following department guidelines to isolate and contain Danner.
Barry’s defense attorney argued that the NYPD guidelines have few hard rules, and decisions are left to officers to handle on the fly.
As a sergeant, Barry was the supervising officer at the scene when a 911 caller summoned the NYPD, claiming that Danner was shouting in the hallway of her building and tearing posters off the wall.
Mullins said it would be hypocritical of O’Neill not to promote Barry given that Chief of Department Terence Monahan himself was caught in a controversy during the arrest of 227 protesters during the 2004 Republican National Convention.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board later said those arrests, none of which were prosecuted, could have been avoided had the protesters been given time to follow orders to disperse.
“You violated people’s rights,” Mullins said. “Now, you’re chief of department.”
Deputy Commissioner Phil Walzak, the NYPD’s top spokesman, had no comment on Mullins’ comparison.