On Thursday night, a Brooklyn father was fatally shot by police while investigating a possible break-in at his home. Duane Browne, 26, was killed during a confrontation wrought with confusion after police responded to a 911 call from a woman who said two armed men had forced her boyfriend into their apartment demanding money. Browne came down to investigate, allegedly carrying a gun. “He was in his house. He was trying to protect his family from what he thought was intruders. How that got misconstrued and what happened, it’s unfortunate,” Shawnte Brown told CBS.
Browne and his girlfriend Renita Ferdinand were watching a movie when they heard the commotion downstairs; the couple lived on the top floor, while his half-brother Dale Ogarro lives on the bottom floor and his mother lives on the main floor. Browne went to check, came back up, and said to her, "They're messing with my brother."
Police said uniformed officers came to the front of 943 Schenk Avenue after a woman outside called 911, saying her boyfriend Ogarro was being robbed by two gunmen. “She ran past them and got in back of the radio car. She said there were two armed men in the back of the house with her boyfriend,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. When they arrived, the woman told the officers, "They have guns."
The robbers fled the home as police were arriving, and soon after, Ogarro came out the back door and was taken into protective custody. Just after that, Browne appeared in his pajamas at the same door, allegedly carrying an illegal .38 caliber revolver. “He failed to comply with an officer’s instructions not to move and was shot once in the chest,” Kelly said. Browne staggered upstairs to his girlfriend while bleeding: "He looked at me and said, 'Baby, I've been shot.'" She claims cops rushed in, held a gun at her head, and refused to help him. "His chest was moving up and down,'' she remembered. "He was fighting for his life. "They wouldn't help him."
"The officers told me they had to shoot him,” Ferdinand said. “They kept calling him the shooter. The officer said, ‘I’m sorry. It was one of us. But he wouldn't put the gun down.’” Police are still looking for the two men who allegedly tried to rob Ogarro; they also found 11 bags of pot, a scale and $680 cash in his home.
Browne's devastated family questions whether police gave him fair warning: “They’re trying to cover something up because they stay too long in that house,” mother Alice Bynoe Browne told CBS. City Councilman Charles Barron agreed that something felt wrong: "This is ridiculous. You're investigating the robbery of a house and guys are running away, why would you not chase them," he said. "This has all the smellings of [a cover-up]." All of the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative duty while the investigation continues.
