NYC Police Officer Arrested For Fatally Shooting Mentally Ill Black Woman
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A New York Police Department officer was found not guilty for shooting a mentally ill black woman in the Bronx back in October 2016.
READ: NYC Police Officer Arrested For Fatally Shooting Mentally Ill Black Woman
Sergeant Hugh Barry was found not guilty of murder, manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide by Judge Robert Neary on Thursday morning, in relation to the fatal shooting of 66-year-old Deborah Danner.
Law enforcement union officials were supportive of the verdict, and also called out Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner James O'Neill, and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, who Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins claimed "had neither the courage nor the integrity to call this incident for what it was for fear of public unrest."
Members of Danner's family were reportedly "devastated" by the verdict.
"Police departments allow this to happen," Wallace Cooke Jr., Danner's cousin and a former NYPD police officer, said to the New York Daily News. "To have this going on today is unacceptable."
Following the trial, the NYPD will conduct its own review of the tactical and supervisory decisions made by Barry.
"Today's court decision in the Bronx determined that Sgt. Hugh Barry had no criminal culpability,"
wrote O'Neill. "It does not, however, make the loss of Deborah Danner's life any less tragic."
The shooting took place back in October 2016, when Barry and other officers were responding to a call about an "emotionally disturbed person." Danner was allegedly wielding scissors that Barry persuaded her to put down. The older woman then allegedly picked up a bat and attacked Barry with it, resulting in him shooting Danner twice in her chest.
Although Barry was carrying a stun gun at the time of the incident he did not use it to subdue Danner. Following Danner's death, Barry was stripped of his badge and gun and placed on modified duty.
Source: New York Daily News
