Family of man fatally struck by NYPD officer sues to get video
The family of a man who was fatally struck by a Brooklyn cop behind the wheel of an NYPD van is demanding that the city turn over seven-month-old video of the incident — and calling for the officers involved to be kicked off the force.
“These officers need to be fired,” victim Ronald Anthony Smith’s sister Julie Floyd said Monday. “They get to go home to their brother, and I don’t get to go home to my brother.”
Smith was killed April 7 when the marked van traveling on Eastern Parkway slammed into him near Schenectady Ave. in Crown Heights, where he stood in the painted median in the middle of the street.
The officers involved were identified by the family as Orkhan Mamedov and Evan Siegel, who both worked in Brooklyn’s 73rd Precinct, records show.
Police confirmed to the family’s attorney that the cops had been transporting an inmate at the time of the incident.
“They were simply transporting people from one location to another,” said Loyda Colon of the Justice Committee, an organization focused on knocking down police violence and systemic racism in the city. “This was not an emergency.”
About a week after the fatal crash, State Attorney General Letitia James announced that her Office of Special Investigation had started its own probe into the incident, but Smith’s family said the office has brushed them off.
“People loved him and are still mourning him to this day,” said Floyd. “And I can’t get any answers from the attorney general’s office. The way they treated me is very hurtful, and they’re supposed to be helping me.”
James’ office did not immediately answer a Daily News request for comment.
Colon said the state attorney general’s office showed them gruesome video of the crash that the family is still trying to get their hands on.
“They were speeding so fast that they drove 35 feet with Ronald Anthony Smith on the hood of their van,” she added. “They couldn’t even stop fast enough after hitting him.”
Colon claimed the video also showed improper medical aid performed by the officers including “one-handed, inconsistent chest compressions.”
“Horror,” Floyd said of the video of her brother’s death. “Absolute horror.”
David Rankin, the attorney representing Smith’s family, has filed a Freedom of Information request for the video and for officers’ body-worn camera footage, but has been denied as the Police Department cites an active investigation.
“We’ve asked nicely,” Rankin said. “We’re suing them for the video that everybody acknowledges is going to be publicly available. They’re forcing us to sue them for it.”
“There’s no reason to have the NYPD continue to behave in a way as though the law doesn’t apply to them,” Rankin added. “It just has to stop.”
