Widow Of Man Shot By Off-Duty NYPD Officer Files $25M Suit Against City
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The wife of an unarmed man fatally shot by an off-duty NYPD officer on Independence Day has filed a $25 million wrongful death suit against the city.
Delrawn Small, 37, was shot by off-duty NYPD officer Wayne Isaacs after allegedly getting into an altercation while at a traffic light in Brooklyn shortly after midnight on July 4.
He was shot in front of his wife and two children.
"I mean it was hard -- I felt like I was being shot, I was being murdered," widow Wenona Small told WCBS88's Peter Haskell.
Based on a preliminary investigation, police initially said they believed Isaacs opened fire after Small reached through the officer's open window and repeatedly hit him in the head as he sat behind the wheel.
However, video of the attack has sparked a dispute on what really happened.
In the grainy black-and-white video, virtually the moment Small walks up to the window, he recoils, stumbles and collapses, with no clear indication that he first lashed out at the officer. The officer briefly exits his car and looks in the fallen man's direction but then returns to the car.
"I just feel things could have been done differently," Small said.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said he met with the family to express his condolences and explain his role as special prosecutor on the case.
The officer has been stripped of his badge and gun as police and the state attorney general's office investigate. The union representing him has declined to comment.