Should be alive
Kin sue in slay of disturbed man who attacked cops
THE FAMILY OF an emotionally disturbed Brooklyn man — shot to death after he beat two cops with a police baton — have filed a wrongful death suit against the city.
Following an emotional meeting with Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and his executive staff on Tuesday, Erickson Brito’s father and sister filed the civil suit seeking unspecified damages.
The family’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, said they appreciated meeting with the DA and are fully cooperating with the criminal probe into the fatal shooting.
“The civil proceedings will be stayed pending completion of the criminal investigation and any criminal proceedings,” Rubenstein said.
The lawsuit names Officers Jennifer Garcia and Andris Bisogno as defendants for failing to follow protocol and the city for not training them to handle emotionally disturbed people.
Garcia and Bisogno arrived at the Van Dyke Houses on Nov. 19 on a report of a suspicious person in the building. They found Brito on the ninth floor and asked him for identification.
Brito, whom relatives said had suffered from depression and addiction, exchanged words with the officers that escalated to a scuffle.
As one of the officers pulled out their service-issued metal baton, Brito grabbed it and allegedly began beating the pair before shots were fired.
Seven bullets hit Brito, killing him. He was 21. Rubenstein told the Daily News that Brito’s father, Osiris Gomez, asked prosecutors through a Spanish interpreter, “Why was his son killed like that?”
Gomez is the executor of his deceased son’s estate.
Within the last 10 months, five mentally disturbed New Yorkers were killed by NYPD officers.
Among the five victims, one officer was criminally charged. Sgt. Hugh Barry was indicted for the Oct. 18 murder of Deborah Danner. The 66-year old, who suffered from schizophrenia, was shot and killed by Barry after she started swinging a baseball bat inside her Pugsley Ave. home in Norwood.
On Aug. 19, Rubenstein and other activists called on the NYPD to train officers to deal with the mentally ill and for the state attorney general’s office to investigate when confrontations with the mentally ill turn deadly.