The partner of the NYPD cop who fatally shot unarmed Bronx teen Ramarley Graham said Thursday that he “one hundred percent” believed Graham had a gun.
“One hundred percent I believed there was a man with a gun,” Officer John Mcloughlin testified during the departmental trial for Officer Richard Haste at Police Department headquarters in lower Manhattan.
Mcloughlin, speaking in a courtroom filled with Graham’s supporters and family members, said he felt unsafe just before the shooting.
Haste, part of an undercover narcotics unit that included Mcloughlin, had chased Graham on foot to his mom’s second floor apartment in Wakefield on Feb. 2 2012 believing he was armed.
With their guns drawn, Haste and Mcloughlin busted through the door of the apartment and Haste shot the teen in the chest in the bathroom in front of his grandmother and 6-year-old brother as Graham was flushing marijuana down the toilet.
“We needed to get into the apartment to apprehend a man with a gun. I was scared,” said Mcloughlin.
Mcloughlin said, “On the other side of the door there was a possibility of getting hurt. There was a possibility there was a person on the other side was getting hurt.”
NYPD prosecutors charge that Haste, 35, botched protocol when he breached the door of the apartment without approval from a supervisor.
When prosecutor Nancy Slater asked Mcloughlin if his sergeant told him to kick in the door, he responded “no.”
“I needed to apprehend a male with a firearm who went into a residence I didn’t know was his,” said Mcloughin.
Mcloughlin was reassigned following the shooting and faces departmental charges for exercising poor tactical judgment. Sgt. Scott Morris also faces three departmental charges.
When Morris testified he said that he did not have a problem with his officers breaching the doors.
“We were in the hot pursuit of an armed suspect. I thought we could handle it,” said Morris.
The NYPD’s Firearms Discharge Review Board reviewed the shooting incident and concluded that Haste did not violate department guidelines by discharging his weapon, but did fail to follow patrol guide procedure when he breached the door, according to witness testimony from Inspector Raymond Caroli, commander of the NYPD firearms and tactics section.
“Before you take that door down…there were no calls for help no gunshots. These are things to consider before you breach the door,” said Caroli who also took the stand Thursday.
During his cross-examination, when Haste’s lawyer Stuart London asked Caroli how many times he has found “the tactics to be bad but the shooting good” in all of his career, Caroli responded “only one other time comes to mind.”
Meanwhile, Graham’s mother insisted Thursday that her own mother — who was present at the time of the incident — should be allowed to testify during the trial.
Graham’s grandmother, Patricia Hartley, who was 58 at time of the shooting, was standing in front of Graham when Officer Richard Haste shot him, said Constance Malcolm, the teen’s mother.
“She thought she got the shot,” Malcolm said. “She clenched her chest. That’s how close she was.”
“My mom was in the line of fire,” she added. “There could’ve been two dead bodies, and you don’t hear anybody talking about that.”
Hartley was present at the press conference, but Malcolm implored reporters not to speak with her because “she can’t bring herself to talk about it.”
Activist Loyda Colon, the co-director of the Justice Committee, told reporters that the 8-year-old son of another tenant, answered the door for the officers, who had their guns drawn.
“The NYPD is also saying that they had consent to enter the house, that they had consent from an adult to enter that house,” Colon said. “There is no consent at gunpoint. And the person who opened the door was an 8-year-old child. An 8-year-old child at gunpoint is not consent.”
Malcolm said she was “very disgusted” with how Haste’s trial is playing out.
“It seems like they were only focusing on what Richard Haste said,” Malcolm said. “But there were three people in the room — my mom, my son and him, so only [they] knew what happened. We could hear his testimony, but what about [my mom]? She was there. He traumatized her. So she has the right to speak of what happened to her and what he did to her.” herself to talk about it.”
The Bronx DA’s Office initially charged Haste with manslaughter and a grand jury indicted him. But the indictment was tossed due to a prosecutorial mistake.
A second grand jury heard the case and declined to indict.
Haste, who remains on modified duty, is now facing departmental charges that could lead to his dismissal.
Haste is expected to take the stand Friday.