Officer Is Cleared in Fatal Shooting of Unarmed Man in Yonkers

Officers investigating a crash in December 2015 on the Saw Mill Parkway that led up to a fatal police shooting of a Queens man. CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times

An investigation by the state attorney general’s office has cleared a New York City police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man after a wild car chase in the Bronx ended in a confrontation in a wooded area of Yonkers last year.

The report, which was issued by the office’s Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit and released on Wednesday, examined the circumstances of the shooting of Miguel Espinal, 35, of Queens, by Officer Garthlette James on Dec. 8, 2015. The office said the investigation “found no criminal culpability in the death of Mr. Espinal.”

The attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said in a statement that Officer James’s use of force was justified and that forensic evidence backed up his account of the episode.

Officers James and Romeo Francis were in the Bronx when they tried to pull over the vehicle that Mr. Espinal was driving because it had heavily tinted windows. Rather than stopping, the car sped onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, collided with two other vehicles and continued onto the Saw Mill River Parkway, where Mr. Espinal drove against traffic in the northbound lane and collided with three other vehicles, the statement said. He then ran into a wooded area near the parkway.

Miguel EspinalCreditNew York Department of Corrections

When Officer James caught up to him, Mr. Espinal tried to take his gun, according to the statement. The officer wrestled Mr. Espinal to the ground but he resisted and reached for the gun, the statement said. Officer James fired one shot into the chest of Mr. Espinal, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Norman Siegel, a lawyer representing the family of Mr. Espinal, said in an interview on Thursday morning that his relatives were “distraught” and were raising questions about the accuracy of parts of the report.

He said he would meet on Friday with a pathologist who conducted an independent autopsy to discuss the possibility of challenging some of the findings.

Mr. Schneiderman noted that the investigation would have “benefited greatly from videotaped evidence” and urged police departments across the state to have officers wear body cameras and use ones attached to the dashboards of police vehicles.

The report was completed as part of Mr. Schneiderman’s role as the state’s special prosecutor. In July 2015, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appointed the attorney general to oversee investigations into episodes in which unarmed civilians die during interactions with the police.

P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/nyregion/officer-is-cleared-in-fatal-shooting-of-unarmed-man-in-yonkers.html