FEDS SAY NO
Nix charges vs. cops who killed disturbed man
THE MANHATTAN U.S. attorney’s office won’t pursue charges against cops who fatally shot an emotionally disturbed man, his family and officials said Tuesday afternoon.
Mohamed Bah died from NYPD gunfire on Sept. 25, 2012. His mother, Hawa Bah, said she had called 911 that day because her 28-year-old son was in the midst of a “mental health crisis.” But NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers responded to his Harlem apartment instead and ended up shooting and killing him.
Cops have said Bah came at them with a knife. His family says Bah was never a threat and that he was “wounded on the ground” when he was shot in the head.
A Manhattan grand jury in 2013 opted against indicting the officers involved, prompting Hawa Bah to urge the U.S. attorney’s office to investigate.
She and her lawyers met with Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim on Tuesday in his St. Andrews Plaza office for an update on the case.
“My heart is broken,” the weeping mother said after leaving the 90-minute meeting. “There is no criminal charges. “My life is broken in pieces,” she said.
Lawyer Randolph McLaughlin, who with attorney Debra Cohen represents Bah’s family, said the decision was disappointing, but “frankly not surprising, given who is sitting in Washington over this Justice Department.”
Kim’s office said he “expressed his deep sympathy to the family of Mr. Bah for their tragic loss.”
“After conducting a review of the evidence,” a statement said “including physical and documentary evidence, as well as grand jury and civil deposition testimony, this office has determined that there is insufficient evidence to meet the high burden of proof required for a federal criminal civil rights prosecution.”
Kim’s office weighed the cops’ testimony that Bah “was holding a knife and lunged at the officers, the fact that vests worn by officers at the scene have slashes consistent with penetration by a knife, and the lack of video evidence of the incident.” Bah’s family has filed a $70 million civil lawsuit against the city.