On Saturday, Feb. 2, just before 3:00 p.m., Constance Malcolm, stood in the front yard of 749 E 229th St. in the Bronx, introducing family of victims of police brutality. Many were in the crowd gathered, there to remember her son Ramarley Graham. It was inside this house, a year later nearly to the moment, from the day Ramarley was gunned down in the bathroom by NYPD officer Richard Haste.
Surveillance video showed Ramarley entering the house captured and Haste’s movements outside the house until he gained entry, gun drawn, minutes later.
Now, in a suit filed by the family against the NYPD, events inside the house are detailed. It states Haste and several officers burst through a locked door, and without identifying themselves, came down the hallway where Ramarley and his grandmother Patricia Hartley stood, his young brother Chinnor was close by.
Excepts from the suit describe his last moments and the aftermath:
“Haste ran down the hallway with his gun pointed and ready to fire. Both Ramarley and Patsy were in the hallway at the time. Ramarley went inside the hallway bathroom. Haste ran to the bathroom and immediately fired a shot into the bathroom, striking Ramarley in the chest, and dropping him to the ground. Patsy was several feet away when the shot was fired.”
“Patsy immediately cried out “why did you shoot him, why you killed him?”
She was pushed backwards by Haste, who responded “get the f–k away before I have to shoot you too”
Patsy was not allowed to call family and taken to a police car and later the 47th precinct.
The suit charges the NYPD with failure to properly train officers and discriminating against youth of color in the department’s stop and frisk policy.
After the rally, close to a hundred supporters including Councilman Charles Barron and NYC Comptroller John Liu marched with family members to the 47th precinct and later a church service marked the day. A flyer announcing the details reminded all “There comes a time when silence is betrayal” the words of Martin Luther King.
