- Police Brutality Watch

Dominican Immigrant's Death by Cops led to Riots in 1992

A state judge yesterday upheld a jury award of $170,000 to the family of a Dominican immigrant killed in a 1992 police shooting that sparked riots in Washington Heights. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich denied a motion by the city to throw out the 2003 verdict in a lawsuit filed by the mother of Jose (Kiko) Garcia, who was shot dead by Police Officer Michael O'Keefe on July 3, 1992. The shooting drew an angry response from people in the upper Manhattan neighborhood, who set fire to a building and threw debris from windows to protest what they said was an unjustified use of force by police. Then-Mayor David Dinkins angered the city's police officers by visiting the Garcia family to offer his condolences. A grand jury later cleared O'Keefe of any wrongdoing. The anti-crime cop testified that he stopped Garcia, a Dominican immigrant, because he suspected Garcia was carrying a gun. When Garcia fled into a building lobby on W.162nd St., O'Keefe said he pursued him. The cop said he fired after Garcia pulled out a gun. After the civil trial, jurors said cops lacked probable cause to arrest Garcia but did not violate his civil rights. The jury awarded Garcia's mother, Regina, $155,000 for the loss of her son's financial support, as well as $15,000 in punitive damages. [more

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