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Five years after the Black gay man was fatally shot in his Bronx apartment, the NYPD’s decision not to discipline the involved officers has sparked widespread anger and calls for accountability.
The New York City Police Department, led by Commissioner Edward Caban, has decided not to discipline the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Kawaski Trawick, a 32-year-old Black gay man, inside his Bronx apartment five years ago, prompting outrage at the department and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The decision not to impose disciplinary action came after the NYPD concluded that the officers, Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis, “acted within the law” during the incident.
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On the evening of April 14, 2019, Thompson and Davis were called to Trawick’s apartment after he had locked himself out while cooking. The situation escalated rapidly: Within 112 seconds of arriving at the scene, Thompson used his Taser on Trawick, who was holding a knife and questioning the officers’ presence. Thompson then fatally shot Trawick. The confrontation, recorded on body-worn cameras, has been widely scrutinized for the quick use of lethal force.
Caban acknowledged that the city’s police oversight board waited too long to bring administrative charges against the officers, contributing to the decision not to discipline them. He said that the oversight board’s delay meant the charges were brought after the statute of limitations had expired, rendering them ineffective, the Associated Press reports.
In a statement to The Advocate by the Justice Committee, Ellen and Rickie Trawick, Kawaski’s parents, expressed their outrage. “Mayor Adams should be ashamed of himself, as a father and as a Black man. Not firing the police who murdered my son in 112 seconds in his home is disgraceful, and the fact that Adams didn’t even let my family know of the decision before making it public is the height of disrespect. Finding out from press late on a Friday, on the weekend, that my family is mourning the five years since Kawaski was murdered is unimaginably painful. Thompson and Davis broke into my son’s home and murdered him within seconds without even attempting to administer aid. They should have already been fired, but Mayor Adams and the NYPD don’t seem to care about protecting New Yorkers from cops who kill. The utter disregard they have for our son’s memory, to make this decision on the five-year anniversary of his death, is disgusting and shameful,” they said.
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Loyda Colon, executive director of the Justice Committee and a spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform, criticized the decision and the city’s leadership. “This decision is monstrous - especially late on the Friday before Kawaski’s family is mourning the five years since he was killed. Mayor Adams’ NYPD is worse than Giuliani’s. The NYPD announcement is wildly misleading - they’re falsely claiming that no crime was committed, so the cops are trying to rely on technicalities when we all saw the video and both Davis and Thompson committed fireable offenses by the standards of the NYPD’s own patrol guide,” Colon said.
Marco Carrión, executive director of El Puente, also spoke on the NYPD’s handling of the incident. El Puente is a Brooklyn-based human rights organization focused on nurturing leadership for peace and justice through education, the arts, environmental justice, and wellness, primarily serving Latinx and other communities of color.
“NYPD has undermined justice, first by refusing to turn over video evidence necessary for the CCRB’s investigation, and now by refusing to fire the officers responsible for killing Mr. Trawick in his own home. Mr. Trawick’s family cannot heal, and safety in our communities is consistently weakened when NYPD fails to hold officers accountable for killing civilians,” Carrión said. “Kawaski Trawick should be alive today.”
