It seems like every other day, the NYPD is facing scrutiny for another shady shooting incident involving a black male. According to the New York Daily News, a pair of NYPD officers who played a role in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Kimani Gray, are heading to civil court stemming from unrelated matters.
The NYPD sergeant and cop involved in the fatal shooting of Brooklyn 16-year-old Kimani Gray have been named in five federal lawsuits — which cost the city a total of $215,000 in settlements, court records show.
Sgt. Mourad Mourad racked up three suits while he was a plainclothes cop on Staten Island, and Officer Jovaniel Cordova racked up two at Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct — all alleging various civil rights violations including illegal stop and search and false arrest.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said Gray was shot after he pointed a .38-caliber revolver at the sergeant and cop, who had approached a group of youths on the street.
A woman who told the Daily News she witnessed the shooting from her apartment window said Gray did not have a gun in his hand. But she previously told Internal Affairs investigators she couldn’t see what the kids were doing “from the angle I was at.”
Cardova and Mourad were also named as the partners involved in the shooting death of Gray, but Gray's autopsy report allegedly shows that he was shot seven times in the back, which would seem to poke a gaping hole in the NYPD's defense.
These federal lawsuits don't make things any simpler for them. One accusation from the federal lawsuit accuses Officer Cardova of putting him facedown in a puddle while he was handcuffed and a separate accusation accuses him of punching a man in the face following an illegal stop inside a building. The NYPD's proclivity for firing on suspects is known, but every year, instead of curtailing this perception, their actions make them look progressively worse.
