Daily News: Witness Reports 16 Year Old The Cops Shot Had No Gun

From The Daily News:

A Brooklyn woman who claims she had a “bird’s-eye view” of the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Kimani (Kiki) Gray says the youth did not have a gun in his hand.

Tishana King is the only civilian eyewitness to come forward, and her account sharply differs from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s assertion that Gray had pointed a .38-caliber revolver at the cops before they opened fire. “I’m certain he didn’t have anything in his hands,” King told the Daily News.

Moments after the Saturday shooting, one cop put both hands on his head and said, “ ‘Oh, God!’ ” King recalled. “His partner went over to him and put his hand on his shoulder and said, ‘Are you okay, buddy?’ ”

King, 39, a medical records clerk at Kings County Hospital, said she gave a tape-recorded interview to detectives several hours after the shooting. The detectives were aware her 14-year-old son dialed 911 from their apartment after the gunfire. But King, in her nearly eight-minute interview with NYPD investigators at 3 a.m. on Sunday, never said a word about whether Gray was carrying a gun.
“I couldn’t see what the kids were doing,” she said during the session. The News reviewed the tape of the Q&A conducted in her apartment after the fatal shooting.

Detectives and Internal Affairs Bureau investigators never asked directly if King saw Gray with a gun, and a police source said NYPD policy precludes asking such leading questions.

...

The NYPD has not released the names of the sergeant and cop who fired 11 shots. A police source said the pair initially reported to supervisors that the teen had pulled a gun — and a loaded weapon was recovered at the scene.

King told The News she was drawn to her third-floor East Flatbush window late Saturday night by the sound of loud laughing and talking outside on E. 52nd St.

She said she watched as a burgundy-colored sedan pulled up and a man jumped out of the passenger side, followed by the driver. King initially thought the duo intended to fight with the youths.
When the driver yelled, “Don’t move!” it clicked that they were cops, she said. “Kimani started backing up,” King said. “The cop took out his gun and started firing at Kimani.”

King said the area was illuminated by a streetlight and Gray appeared to be cornered by the cops. “His (Gray’s) hands were down,” she said. “I couldn’t believe he let off (fired) his gun. There was no reason. No false move.”

A police source said King never told detectives that Gray was backing up with his hands down.
Kelly said an “earwitness” heard a cop yell, “What do you have in your hands?” but a source said the man was too far away to see the confrontation. The shooting appeared to be within NYPD guidelines, he added.

Love that last line - the "shooting appeared to be within NYPD guidelines."

 

In Mayor Bloomberg's New York, "NYPD guidelines" means they can shoot you for any reason if you are a man of color.