NYC Police Officer who Killed Timothy Stansbury Gets Union Job
Saturday, April 9, 2005 at 10:22PM
TheSpook
Richard Neri, the Brooklyn cop who shot
and killed 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury on the roof of a Bed-Stuy
apartment building last winter, has been elected to a police union
office. In his paid position as a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
delegate in Brooklyn North, Neri will be the new go-to guy for officers
in his precinct. Among other duties for the powerful PBA, Neri will be
first on the scene in the event a cop, for example, shoots someone and
thinks he might need advice. Just one year ago, Neri was on the
receiving end of such PBA help. On January 24, 2004, Stansbury was
trying to take a shortcut across a roof to get more CDs for a friend's
birthday party. He got as far as a door that opens out to the roof
when, in the stairwell, he was shot once in the chest by Neri. The
African American teen, a McDonald's employee who was working on his
high school diploma, was unarmed and had never been in trouble with
police. Neri later said he pulled the trigger unintentionally. A
Brooklyn grand jury later cleared Neri of any criminal liability.
Stansbury's family has filed a civil suit against Neri, who has
remained benched, sans gun and badge, pending an internal review of the
shooting. He's still on non-enforcement "modified duty" until the
NYPD's Firearms Review Board figures out whether to discipline him. How
could a cop still under investigation for a deadly shooting—one who
can't even carry a badge—be elected to union office? What's obvious to
City Councilman Charles Barron, the unofficial spokesman for
Stansbury's parents, is the symbolism of Neri's union post. "The Police
Brutality Association—that's what I call them. That decision was absurd
and unconscionable. They have in effect rewarded him for killing an
innocent youth." [more]