News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Mar. 19, 2013: A Caribbean, New York-based Institute is slamming the city’s mayor for saying the two police officers were justified to shoot 16-year-old Caribbean American teen Kimani Gray because he “had a gun.”
The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy, (CGID), called the comments by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg “impetuous.”
Bloomberg on March 15th, during a radio interview, and there after, claimed: “There’s so far no evidence they (the police officers) didn’t do exactly what the book says.”
The mayor also asserted: “All the evidence says the young man had a gun…. We’ll conduct a normal, full investigation” of the shooting.
In a statement, CGID on Tuesday, said “such hasty conclusions demonstrate a level of prejudice against Kimani Gray that is alarming.” the group said.
The CGID called the comments erroneous and said that no eyewitness evidence corroborates the claim that Gray pointed a gun at police.
The New York-based group also accused Bloomberg of making declarative and conclusory statements while in the same breath claiming that a “full” investigation into the shooting is underway.
“If the mayor has already formed a conclusion in this case without knowing all of the facts and circumstances, why then is there an investigation? Is it his view that the investigation will rubber-stamp the police’s version of events?” CGID asked.
Gray was shot seven times about the body by Brooklyn detectives. Autopsy reports allegedly show he was hit at least four times from the back.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told a City Council hearing last week that no eyewitness said they saw Gray point a gun at the two plain clothes police officers, one of whom is Hispanic and the other Black.
“Apart from his baseless claims and biased assertions, the Mayor presumes the account given by the police to be factual. However, by now, Mayor Bloomberg should have been fully briefed on the fact that the officers who shot Kimani Gray were accused of manufacturing evidence and violating citizen’s human rights in prior cases. The city was sued in these cases. Mayor Bloomberg’s own administration did not contest the facts in evidence in the aforementioned cases. Instead it chose to settle these lawsuits for substantial amounts,” the organization added.
