In a 13-minute interview with their attorney, the parents of Ramarley Graham, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed in his Bronx home by an NYPD officer say they want justice for their slain son."I want the person or the persons that is responsible for taking my son away from me, taking our son way from us, to be held responsible and brought to justice to the full extent," Franclot Graham says. "As far as I'm concerned, a criminal is a criminal…I don't care if you wear a uniform or baggy pants, a hoodie, you are wrong."
Graham's mother, Constance Malcolm, says that the NYPD restrained her while she was attempting to tell her mother, the only witness to the shooting, not to speak to the police without an attorney. Malcolm also notes that she found out about her son's death in the 47th Precinct building when an officer told a colleague he had "come from the homicide."
Surveillance video shows NYPD officers attempting to break into Graham's house, which Graham calmly enters moments before they arrive. According to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, the officer who killed Graham, Richard Haste, shouted "Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!" before shooting Graham in the chest. Graham was allegedly dumping a small amount of marijuana into the toilet.
Haste, has been stripped of his gun and badge pending an investigation ordered by Commissioner Kelly, and Sergeant Scott Morris, who was supervising the pursuit of Graham in the drug sting, has been reassigned to the Property Clerk Division.
The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke today at Graham's funeral, which was held at Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church.
