AG clears 2 cops in fatal shoot of motorist armed with BB gun
The state attorney general’s office has cleared two cops who fatally shot a man armed with a BB gun during a harrowing 2021 confrontation on a Brooklyn highway, officials said Saturday.
Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigations announced that charges against the officers who shot and killed Brian Astarita, 65, in front of several witnesses on the Belt Parkway “are not warranted in this matter,” an agency said in a statement.
Two cops fired off nearly 20 shots at Astarita after he fled a car stop near the Bay Eighth St. exit in Bath Beach.
Astarita led police on a chase, rear-ended a police car, and pulled out a weapon in the encounter captured by several passing motorists’ camera phones.
The rush-hour drama unfolded just after 4 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2021, when an officer with NYPD Highway Unit 2 stopped Astarita’s gray Jeep Cherokee for speeding.
As she approached his vehicle, Astarita sped off, so she followed.
During the chase, she positioned her unmarked car in front of his Jeep near the Verrazzano Bridge, former NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said at the time.
Astarita rear-ended the police car and kept going, so the officer radioed for help, authorities said.
Another NYPD vehicle joined the pursuit, and they stopped Astarita’s car near the Bay Parkway exit.
That’s when Astarita got out of his Jeep, pulled a BB gun from his back seat, and advanced on the cops.
The cops yelled several times for the suspect to drop his weapon, witnesses’ video shows. But the man kept coming, so the officers opened fire.
Witness footage captured the shooting from multiple angles. There was a barrage of at least 16 gunshots, followed by a pause, then another shot, then another pause, then another two. Several seconds passed before two more shots were heard.
One witness ducked behind his car as he streamed a live feed of the shooting on Instagram.
The officers took turns frantically performing CPR on Astarita, who lay crumpled on the ground. Medics took him to NYU Langone Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
Astarita had seven prior arrests, mostly for vehicular crimes, cops said.
After reviewing body-worn camera footage, questioning witnesses and reviewing other footage of the shooting, James’ office opted not to criminally charge the two officers.
“[E]vidence indicates that when Mr. Astarita pointed his weapon at the officers in the presence of civilians and refused to drop it, the officers who shot Mr. Astarita reasonably believed that he could cause fatal harm to them or an innocent bystander,” a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office said.
“Under these circumstances, given the law and the evidence, a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers who fired were justified.
“Criminal charges could not be pursued against the officers,” the AG’s office said.
“It was a dangerous situation,” Harrison said at the time of the incident, emphasizing that the officers acted to protect themselves and the nearby motorists. “Unfortunately it happened to be a negative ending. But we did what we had to do to stop this perp.”