East New York

Detective: Killer cop didn’t look injured after road-rage murder

October 27, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Wayne Isaacs is on trial for murder and manslaughter at Brooklyn Supreme Court for the death of Delrawn Small. Eagle photo by Paul Frangipane.
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An NYPD detective who took pictures of an off-duty cop accused of murdering an unarmed man said it did not look like the officer was injured less than two hours after the shooting.

A little more than an hour after Officer Wayne Isaacs, who pleaded self-defense, gunned down Delrawn Small on an East New York street on July 4, 2016, now-retired Detective Vincent Falsitta took photos of the officer in Jamaica Hospital. In Isaacs’ Brooklyn Supreme Court murder trial Friday, the detective testified he did not see any injuries.

“I did not see anything,” Falsitta said in court when Assistant Attorney General Joshua Gradinger asked about Isaacs’ injuries that morning.

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The defense team is arguing that Small, 37, punched Isaacs in the face while they were parked on Atlantic Avenue near Bradford Street following a road rage incident. Isaacs, 38, then fired three bullets into Small’s chest, abdomen and arm and left him to bleed out between two nearby cars.

Falsitta told the jury that when he asked Isaacs about any injuries, the officer pulled the right side of his lip down for photos.

Falsitta’s evidentiary photos show Isaacs’ unmarked face and another of the officer’s partially cut inner lip.

The attorney general’s prosecution team did not push further about the injuries, or publish the lip photo in open court.

Isaacs is the first police officer to be prosecuted by the AG’s Office after a the passing of a 2015 executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that gives cases of police shootings of unarmed men to the state AG.

Detective Emilio Alvarado demonstrated how Isaacs’ off-duty gun functioned.

Small’s family began showing distress as the firearm inspector held up the gun and racked it in demonstration.

Along with Detective Robert Liguori, the two confirmed that the three recovered shell casings came from Isaacs’ gun, one of which was found underneath a flap of carpet beneath his driver seat.

Small, his girlfriend, his 4-month-old son and 14-year-old stepdaughter left a night of laughing and dancing at a holiday barbecue near Williams Street in East New York. When they were driving home, Isaacs allegedly cut them off in traffic.

Surveillance footage then shows Small approaching Isaacs’ car at a red light and sparks bursting out seconds after Small gets to the car.

“He took off his seatbelt and he got out. I told him not to get out,” 37-year-old girlfriend, Zaquanna Albert previously testified. “I seen a spark and I seen Delrawn like, hit the car, like, twist off and hit the car and slide down.”

Albert’s daughter was in the middle of a barely audible 911 call as the scene played out. Albert comforted the crying teen in court Thursday as she listened to the screech-filled call.

Isaacs is on trial for murder and manslaughter, facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Currently out on $500,000 bail, he has been suspended without pay from the force, according to an NYPD spokesperson.

The prosecution team is scheduled to finish their arguments Monday afternoon with closing arguments expected on Thursday.  


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