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Medical examiner: NYPD officer’s bullets likely killed Kawaski Trawick within seconds
By
Samantha Max
Published Apr 25, 2023
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Samantha Max / Gothamist
By
Samantha Max
Published Apr 25, 2023
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Two bullets that tore through Kawaski Trawick’s chest and back likely killed him immediately, a medical examiner testified Tuesday at the administrative trial of the NYPD officers accused of using excessive force against him.
As images of Trawick’s body appeared on a large screen in the courtroom, his mother, Ellen Trawick looked down. His father, Rickie Trawick, wrapped an arm around his wife. Both were dressed in black.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, New York City’s police watchdog agency, has charged officers Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis with violating department policy during a 2019 encounter that lasted less than two minutes. CCRB prosecutors are asking that both the officers be terminated.
Like Trawick, Davis is Black. Thompson is white.
Thompson is accused of several charges, including using excessive force when he Tased Trawick, then pointed his gun and shot him. Davis, who never fired his weapon, only faces one charge for not rendering medical aid. The medical examiner's testimony that Trawick likely died immediately could make it difficult for the CCRB to prove that Davis should be fired, since that would mean that medical assistance likely would not have saved the 32-year-old’s life.
When CCRB prosecutor Andre Applewhite asked whether Trawick could have survived his injuries, Dr. Terra Cederroth said the chances would have been “vanishingly” small, even if he had received immediate surgery.
“It’s a very remote possibility approaching zero,” said Cederroth, deputy chief medical examiner of Manhattan.
Just days before the trial began, the judge presiding over the case dismissed charges against both officers for illegally entering Trawick’s apartment.
Davis and Thompson arrived at Trawick’s apartment in a supportive housing facility in the Bronx at 11:06 p.m. on April 14, 2019, according to a report from the Bronx district attorney’s office. They were responding to 911 calls from building staff complaining that Trawick was “harassing” neighbors and staff and had been “losing his mind all day.”
Footage of the incident released by the DA’s office shows Davis knocking on the door and gently pushing it open. Trawick is in his underwear, holding a stick and knife, and asking the officers: “Why are you in my home?”
Davis, who joined the NYPD in 2003, can be heard on Thompson’s body camera footage telling Trawick to “put it down.” Thompson, who was hired in 2015, stood behind him with his Taser drawn.
“We ain’t gon’ Tase him,” Davis said, according to subtitles in the video footage released by the Bronx DA’s office.
Trawick said he was holding a knife because he was cooking. The officers kept telling him to drop it.
“I don’t have my camera on, so be careful,” Davis said.
But after ignoring more commands to put down the knife, Thompson Tased Trawick, who fell to the ground. The officers both entered the apartment, and Trawick started screaming.
“Get out!” he yelled, first retreating further into his apartment, then running toward the officers.
“I’m gonna kill you all,” he shouted. “Get out.”
At 11:08 p.m., Thompson fired four bullets. One cut through Trawick’s back and heart, according to the medical examiner. Another pierced his chest, broke three ribs and grazed his liver.
Cederroth said a toxicology report uncovered methamphetamine in Trawick’s system.
Davis chewed gum and looked straight ahead as his attorney, Richard Murray, asked whether either of the wounds could have caused Trawick’s death. Cederroth said yes.
The trial is pausing until mid-May due to scheduling conflicts. The officers are due back in court on May 11 and 12, when they are expected to testify in their defense.
This story has been updated to clarify that a bullet passed through Trawick's back and heart.
Tagged
trial
nypd
CCRB
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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