Officer to face disciplinary charges in road rage shooting

January 21, 2021 Associated Press

A NYPD car. Photo: Julio Cortez/AP File

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The New York Police Department will bring disciplinary charges against an officer who killed a man in a 2016 road rage shooting, officials announced.

The proceeding will come more than three years after Officer Wayne Isaacs was acquitted of criminal charges in the shooting of Delrawn Small, who was 37.

Isaacs, 42, was off duty when he shot Small in Brooklyn on July 4, 2016. Small’s girlfriend told police that Small thought Isaacs had cut him off and got out his car to confront the officer, who then shot him.

A jury found Isaacs not guilty of murder and manslaughter in 2017, but the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated an excessive force complaint against the officer in October and recommended disciplinary charges.

The Daily News reports that police officials said Tuesday that the watchdog agency will get a chance to prosecute those charges at a departmental trial.

“We have been informed of the CCRB’s intention to go forward with this case,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said. “The NYPD will cooperate with the CCRB in every way.”

Small’s sister, Victoria Davis, and brother, Victor Dempsey, criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police department for waiting so long to start disciplinary proceedings.

“The level of disrespect our family has had to deal with and the pain we’ve had to endure is outrageous, but this is how the de Blasio administration and NYPD treat families of New Yorkers killed by police,” they said in a statement.

Patrick Lynch, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, defended Isaacs, who remains on the force.

“We’re confident that another impartial review of the facts will clear him once again,” Lynch said.