Two New York City police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old Bronx man in his kitchen in 2019 acted within the law and will not be punished, the city’s police commissioner said on Friday.
The announcement by the commissioner, Edward A. Caban, was the last in a series of decisions clearing the officers, Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis, of wrongdoing in the killing of the man, Kawaski Trawick.
The officers entered Mr. Trawick’s apartment the night of April 14, 2019, after responding to 911 calls saying that he had been acting erratically and threatening other tenants.
When Mr. Trawick jumped toward them with a knife, the police said, Officer Thompson used his Taser against him before shooting at him four times. The two left Mr. Trawick lying on the floor of his apartment, according to police documents.
Mr. Trawick’s parents, Ellen and Rickie Trawick, condemned the commissioner’s decision, saying in a statement that Mayor Eric Adams and the Police Department “don’t seem to care about protecting New Yorkers from cops who kill.”
They added that “the utter disregard they have for our son’s memory” was “disgusting and shameful.”
The Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, declined in 2020 to file charges against the officers, citing what she said was an inability to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Officer Thompson’s “use of deadly physical force was not justified.”
The Police Department’s Force Investigation Division cleared the officers of wrongdoing in January 2021, Mr. Caban noted in his announcement on Friday.
Prosecutors with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent watchdog agency, filed administrative charges of assault, unlawful entry and unlawful use of force against Officer Thompson and charged Officer Davis with trespassing and failure to render aid.
A deputy commissioner who presided over the ensuing departmental proceeding said in a decision last September that the charges should be dismissed because the review board had been tardy in filing them, according to the news outlet The City.
The charges were filed on Oct. 20, 2021, five months after the deadline under the statute of limitations. The review board said the delay was the result of the Police Department’s having turned over footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras only in January 2021.
The department and the board now have an agreement under which the police must provide body-camera footage to the review board within 90 days of a request, Mr. Caban said in his announcement.
Mr. Trawick was locked out of his apartment the night he was killed, according to an inquiry by Ms. Clark, the district attorney. He then called 911 to report a fire in the building. When Fire Department personnel responded, he expressed concern about food he had left on the stove, and they let him back in.
After they left, the district attorney’s inquiry found, Officer Thompson and Officer Davis entered the building and spoke with the superintendent, who told them Mr. Trawick had a stick and a knife and had been harassing him.
When the officers approached Mr. Trawick’s door, they heard loud music coming from inside, according to Ms. Clark’s investigation. They knocked on the door, which was locked with a chain that the Fire Department had broken earlier. They pushed it open when they did not get a response.
After a short interaction, Officer Thompson used his Taser on Mr. Trawick in an effort to handcuff him. Mr. Trawick fell but got back on his feet before he could be restrained. Officer Thompson, standing in the apartment’s doorway, then fired four times at Mr. Trawick. Officer Davis, Ms. Clark found, believed that Mr. Trawick had died immediately.
Officer Thompson remains on active duty, the police said on Friday. Officer Davis retired this month.
Maria Cramer contributed reporting.
