NY AG Schneiderman to Probe Fatal Police Shooting

YONKERS, NY - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will investigate Tuesday afternoon’s fatal shooting of an unarmed man by police, an incident that followed a chase from the Bronx to Yonkers on the Saw Mill Parkway, according to published reports.

Miguel Espinal, 36, of Queens, NY, was killed by an NYPD officer after Espinal, who crashed a car in the wrong direction on the Saw Mill, tried to flee on foot through Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonkers. The Journal News reports that Espinal and the officer tussled in the park when the officer’s gun discharged and hit Espinal in the torso.

“One shot was discharged from one New York City police officer’s weapon,” Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner George Longworth told The Journal News. Schneiderman is probing the shooting under an executive order from Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the AG look into all police shootings involving unarmed subjects.

A second suspect in Espinal’s vehicle, Yonkers resident Akeem Mark Smith, 25, was injured in the crash. He has since been released by police, according to News 12.

Exactly what started the chase has not been disclosed. Police said NYPD officers tried to pull over Espinal in the Bronx, but instead he took off. The New York Post reports that officers tried to pull over Espinal for illegally tinted car windows, while The New York Times writes Espinal was seen driving erratically.

One of two NYPD officers, Garthlette James and Romeo Francis, is believed to have shot Espinal, according the Times, but it was not clear which one.

A cousin of Espinal’s, Melania Brown, told News 12 Tuesday that despite the chase, and Espinal’s past criminal arrests, he did not deserve to be shot and killed by police.

“It’s not fair. It’s not right what they did today to an innocent person, to a person that was so happy and full of life; [it] was not right,” she said.

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