‘BRUTAL’ COP
AG blasts officer in B’klyn road-rage slay
AN NYPD COP carried out a “brutal and deliberate act” in gunning down a Brooklyn motorist in a deadly road-rage confrontation, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Officer Wayne Isaacs, 37, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Delrawn Small, also 37, in a July 4 roadside showdown in East New York.
“The defendant fired — not one, not two, but three shots were fired from a semiautomatic as the victim approached with no weapon,” Assistant Attorney General Joshua Gradinger said at Isaacs’ arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
“The defendant had no legal justification. The strength of this case is overwhelming.”
Court papers obtained Tuesday by the Daily News show that Isaacs initially downplayed the shooting on Atlantic Ave. near Bradford St.
“I was involved in an off-duty incident,” he told a fellow officer after the midnight confrontation.
Isaacs, speaking to a second officer, insisted that he was the victim.
“He kept hitting me. My lip, my lip,” the officer claimed.
Isaacs told an emergency medical technician that he had been “assaulted.”
“I was attacked,” he said to a second paramedic. “I was hit.”
But surveillance video tells a different story.
Small, who was two cars behind Isaacs on Atlantic Ave., is seen exiting his vehicle after both had stopped at a red light.
Just a few seconds after Small reached Isaacs’ driver-side window, the victim is seen stumbling to the ground — shot three times.
At his arraignment Tuesday, Isaacs’ lawyer Stephen Worth argued that the video actually exonerates his client.
“We will use the same video to point to his innocence,” Worth said. “The deceased approached, he wasn’t coming over to give a good salutation.”
Worth, in fighting prosecutors’ request for $500,000 bail and ankle monitoring, noted that Isaacs has a wife and two kids.
“He has too much invested to flee — $500,000 is an outrageous amount,” Worth said.
Judge Alexander Jeong dismissed that argument — setting Isaacs’ bail at $500,000 bond or $350,000 cash. Isaacs was also ordered to wear an ankle bracelet and surrender his passport and gun.
Isaacs is the first NYPD officer to be prosecuted by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. A 2015 executive order issued by Gov. Cuomo empowered Schneiderman to handle cases involving unarmed civilians killed by police officers.
“We conducted a thorough investigation, and as I said time and again, we followed the facts wherever they lead,” Schneiderman said.
Prior to the hearing, Small’s widow said she was feeling uneasy about laying eyes on her husband’s killer for the first time.
“It's going to be painful, excruciating,” Wenona Hauser Small said. “I just want to see justice.”