Officer's 911 Call Brings Brooklyn Road Rage Killing Victim's Family To Tears At Trial
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There was emotional testimony Wednesday in the trial of an NYPD officer accused of murder.
As CBS2's Marc Liverman reported, a major subject of testimony Wednesday was the 911 call that Officer Wayne Isaacs made seconds after he fired the shots that killed Delrawn Small.
Small's family and friends were visibly upset as they walked out of Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday.
Isaacs stands charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter after being accused of shooting Small, 37, to death on July 4, 2016.
Small was not armed.
Small's girlfriend, Zaquana Albert, took the stand Wednesday, describing in tears how she watched him bleed out right in the middle of the road.
Grainy surveillance video showed Small approaching the officer's personal car and then appearing to stumble and collapse.
It started as a road rage incident, and defense attorney Stephen Worth said it ended as an act of self-defense.
"There's no question he pulled the trigger. There's no question about that," Worth said. "The question is, did he have a right to defend himself and use a weapon? We maintain he absolutely had the right to defend himself, and I suggest that anybody in his position would have done exactly what he did."
But Small's sister argued that it did not have to end the way it did.
"There were other things that Wayne Isaacs could have chosen to do, and he did not do them," said Victoria Davis.
Attorneys also played the 911 call made by Isaacs, saying he was attacked by Small. Isaacs calmly sattes that he is an off-duty officer as he talks to the operator.
One witness who took the stand also described how he heard three to four gunshots. When attorneys played the 911 call, some of Small's family started to sob.
If convicted on the murder charge, Isaacs faces up to life in prison.
Isaacs is the first police officer in New York state to be tried under an executive order that gave the attorney general power to investigate and prosecute officers for killing unarmed civilians.