New York City’s police watchdog agency is asking a judge to recommend the firing of two NYPD officers for their role in a fatal 2019 encounter with a man in the midst of a mental health crisis.
The administrative trial of Officers Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis began Monday at NYPD headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, found the officers violated NYPD policy when they broke through Kawaski Trawick’s apartment door, Tased him and shot him.
Trawick, a 32-year-old Black resident of a supportive housing facility in the Bronx, had locked himself out of his apartment and was “harassing” the superintendent to let him in, according to a 2020 report from the Bronx district attorney’s office. Trawick called 911 and said there was a fire in the building, prosecutors found. Building security and the super also called 911.
The FDNY opened Trawick’s door for him, and he walked back inside, according to surveillance footage. But a few moments later, police arrived. Body camera footage shows they ordered Trawick to drop a knife that he was holding. He said he was cooking and asked them why they were in his home. And after Thompson Tased him, Trawick ran at them and threatened to kill them, yelling at them to “get out.”
Less than two minutes after they had arrived, Thompson fired four shots, killing Trawick.
Gothamist and multiple other reporters and members of the public were not allowed into the courtroom due to a shortage of seats. But several sources inside the room said prosecutors played a compilation of security video, body camera footage and 911 calls to paint a picture of what happened that night, arguing that the officers “ignored the tactics they had been taught” to de-escalate situations and to navigate encounters with people in mental crisis. CCRB prosecutor Andre Applewhite said using proper tactics could have saved Trawick’s life.
Defense attorneys for the two officers argued that past decisions not to charge or discipline the officers prove that they didn’t do anything wrong. Richard Murray, Davis’ attorney, argued that the officer didn’t violate NYPD’s policy on rendering medical aid because Trawick was already dead and could not be saved, according to several trial observers.
Michael Martinez, Thompson’s attorney, called the trial a “political prosecution” and said his client should be on patrol, observers said. He argued that the officer was afraid for his life when he fired the shots and that prosecutors wouldn’t be able to prove otherwise. He also said that the CCRB should have acted more quickly.
The administrative proceedings began more than four years after that fatal night, following a lengthy battle to release body camera footage of the incident and delays to set a trial date. Any outcome from the trial will be non-binding — a mere recommendation for the course of disciplinary action Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell should take.
But after prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges and the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division found no evidence of wrongdoing, the trial is the last chance at punishment for the officers. In another high-profile case, Daniel Pantaleo was fired following a CCRB trial more than five years after he killed Eric Garner.
Not all CCRB cases end with an administrative trial — just the cases with the most serious charges. But it often takes years for those cases to play out. A shortage of attorneys in the unit that handles CCRB prosecutions has further exacerbated delays in recent months.
Drama upstairs and downstairs at NYPD headquarters
The trial started off with a heated exchange after the CCRB objected to a last-minute decision from Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado to drop one of the disciplinary charges facing the two officers, for illegal entry, several observers said. Maldonado ordered Applewhite to sit down, but he refused, according to two sources inside the room.
Maldonado called for a break. Meanwhile, in a small vestibule outside the entrance to NYPD headquarters, a line of reporters, advocates and loved ones of others killed by police waited for hours to be let into the building. A steady stream of people walked through the locked door for appointments to get gun permits, pick up records, have their fingerprints taken and recoup belongings.
Joshua Lopez, whose uncle, John Collado, was killed by police in Inwood in 2011, said he was there to show support for the Trawick family. So was Angelique Negroni-Kearse, a Bronx resident whose husband, Andrew Kearse, died in police custody in Schenectady.
“No one knows our pain,” she said.
About two-and-a-half hours after the trial was slated to begin, court adjourned for the day. About two-dozen people gathered outside the building and called for the officers to be fired. Trawick’s mother, Ellen Trawick, said she will be in the courtroom every day, seeking justice for her son.
“We will be here until the end to see that these two officers are held accountable for taking Kawaski’s life,” she said.
The trial picks up again Tuesday and is expected to last several more days, with a two-week break in the middle. The CCRB and the defense are both expected to call expert witnesses. The officers are also expected to testify.
