AP New York
Stansbury's mom: NYC officer got off easy in her son's death By TOM HAYS WriterJanuary 2, 2007, 3:33 PM EST
NEW YORK -- A 30-day suspension was too light a punishment for a police officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager on a Brooklyn rooftop three years ago, the victim's mother said Tuesday. At a news conference outside police headquarters, Phyllis Clayburne likened the decision by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to being "spit in the face."
Kelly suspended Officer Richard Neri without pay last week, nearly three years after the death of 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury. Neri also was permanently stripped of his gun and assigned to desk duty in a property clerk's office. Clayburne was joined by City Councilman Charles Barron, who suggested Neri should have been fired. He noted that at the time of the shooting, Kelly said it appeared to be unjustified. "Timothy Stansbury didn't stand a chance," Barron said. The shooting occurred in January 2004 while Neri and his partner were patrolling atop the Louis Armstrong Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section. Stansbury and two friends had decided to use a roof as a shortcut to another building. Neri's partner pulled open a rooftop door so that Neri, his gun drawn, could peer inside for any lurking drug suspects, police said. Stansbury startled the officers by appearing at the door and moving toward Neri, who responded with one shot he claimed he fired by accident. After a grand jury declined to indict Neri on criminal charges, a judge at a departmental trial last year recommended that Neri lose 30 vacation days _ but not his gun _ for failing to safeguard the weapon. Kelly, who has final say on disciplinary matters, decided last Thursday to impose the harsher penalty "because of the seriousness of the case," said police spokesman Paul Browne. Historically, the department has not fired officers involved in accidental shootings.