A judge yesterday threw out manslaughter charges against a New York Police Department officer accused of killing an unarmed suspect last year in a Bronx home. Justice Steven Barrett (See Profile) told spectators, "I regret that there are people who are hurt by this," but insisted that the law required him to dismiss the indictment against Officer Richard Haste. Haste had been charged in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham during a police operation targeting streetcorner drug dealing. He and other officers pursued Graham into his Bronx apartment where the teen was shot at close range. No gun was recovered.
The judge ruled that prosecutors, in giving instructions to grand jurors, had improperly left the impression the jury shouldn’t consider evidence that other officers had radioed Haste in advance to warn him that they thought Graham had a gun. The defense claimed that was one of the reasons Haste used deadly force. Haste has said he believed Graham had a gun and was going to shoot him.
