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NYPD officer driving a van that hit and killed a man in Brooklyn will not face criminal charges
By
Samantha Max
Published May 23, 2023
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Courtesy, New York Attorney General
By
Samantha Max
Published May 23, 2023
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The NYPD officer driving a van that hit and killed a man on Eastern Parkway last spring will not face criminal charges, the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation announced late Monday.
In a 128-page report, prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence to prove in court that Officer Orkhan Mamedov had violated the law when he fatally struck Ronald Anthony Smith.
“Based on the facts of the investigation, OSI cannot conclude that PO Mamedov acted with ‘reckless disregard’ for the safety of others, or that he acted with ‘conscious indifference’ to the risk that his driving could kill a pedestrian,” the report said.
State prosecutors consider whether officers broke the law, not whether they violated department policy. But the report did highlight several gaps in NYPD policy and practices that could have contributed to the deadly crash.
Mamedov and his partner, Officer Evan Siegel, were transporting four people from the 73rd Precinct to Brooklyn Central Booking in a police van on a rainy night in April 2022, according to the report. Mamedov was speeding with his emergency lights on and drove through two red traffic signals, the report said. He then swerved into a left turn lane and kept driving straight as the lane turned into a painted median strip on the next block. That was when he hit Smith, who was standing in the center of the parkway.
Smith’s sister, Julie Floyd, said in an interview that she was angry but not surprised that prosecutors wouldn’t be charging Mamedov.
“Unfortunately, it was due to their own negligence with my brother,” she said. “But he paid for it, and they get to walk away, as usual.”
Data shows that NYPD officers hardly ever face criminal charges for killing someone. Since the state Legislature passed a law in 2020 requiring the attorney general to investigate all deaths at the hands of police in New York, just two NYPD officers have been indicted from reviews of 85 incidents since 2021, according to the attorney general's office. Both were for off-duty conduct.
Speeding on a rainy night
Smith, 53, was walking on a painted median strip on Eastern Parkway, a busy thoroughfare in Crown Heights. In its report, the attorney general’s office said that his arm appeared to be outstretched toward drivers at times and that he was likely panhandling.
As the police van drove down Eastern Parkway, Mamedov swerved into the left lane to avoid crashing into a car in front of him, the officer and detainees in the car told investigators, according to the report. But when the lane ended, according to the report, he continued straight through the intersection and onto the median strip in the next block. He was driving 45 miles per hour in a 25 mile-per-hour zone when he hit Smith, the report said.
Mamedov braked almost immediately, according to the attorney general's office. Body camera footage released by the office shows that he got out of the van, unzipped Smith’s jacket and sweatshirt and began to pump his chest — a process he stopped and started several times, while also calling for help, looking around inside his vehicle and talking to medical workers. By the time Smith made it to Kings County Hospital, he was in full cardiac arrest, with a broken leg, cuts on his arm and a bloody head, the report stated.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Smith, who was 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 98 pounds, died from blunt force after landing hard on the ground. He did not appear to have been dragged, the medical examiner said.
Mamedov told investigators that he was nervous while he was driving, because one of the men had been violent during his arrest, according to the report. Body camera footage of the arrest reviewed by investigators showed the man telling Mamedov he would “straight deck you right in your mouth.”
Mamedov also said he felt responsibility for his partner, who didn’t have much experience. Siegel had joined the department less than a year earlier, while Mamedov had been with the NYPD for four years.
According to the report, Mamedov told the attorney general's office that he was distracted, and regularly turned to look when he heard cuff chains rattling in the back. He said he was also rushing to get to booking before the evening shift change, which would have slowed down the process to get the men into lodging.
Body camera footage released by the attorney general's office last December briefly showed an image of a soccer game on Mamedov’s cellphone after the crash. Smith’s family said at the time that they thought the officer might have been watching a soccer game while at the wheel. But investigators determined that the image was not a live game playing on his phone but rather his screensaver. Mamedov and witnesses in the car said he was not using his cellphone while he was driving.
Mamedov's phone, from body worn camera after the crash, and later.
Courtesy, New York State Attorney General
Police who responded to the scene found that Mamedov showed “no signs of impairment” and said that he blew a 0.000 on a Breathalyzer test about an hour and a half after the crash.
Officer William High of the NYPD’s Driver Education and Training Unit told investigators that the unit does not train officers on prisoner transport or the use of nonvehicular lanes, but that “best practices dictate an operator of an emergency vehicle should slow down and not drive in nonvehicular lanes,” according to the report. Training materials included in the report show that officers are instructed to take a “deliberate and tactical approach” when passing through intersections and that they should “perceive each intersection as a threat to personal safety.”
Officers still on duty
In New York, the legal standard for criminally negligent homicide is when someone causes another person’s death by failing to perceive a “substantial and unjustifiable risk.” Their actions must be considered a “gross deviation” from the actions of a “reasonable person.”
In this case, the AG’s office said it did not find sufficient evidence to indict Mamedov, based on those legal requirements. But it did raise some questions and recommendations. Investigators said they were unable to determine whether the officer had activated his sirens and said that it was still unclear if he could be held liable in a civil lawsuit, given that the NYPD found he was at fault for the collision.
Prosecutors recommended that NYPD change its policy so that prisoner transports are no longer defined as emergencies, unless they have special permission from a supervisor. That would give officers less leeway to break traffic laws, the report said. They suggested that the department require more security measures during prisoner transports and give officers the proper equipment to keep people detained, so that they’re not distracted or worried about their safety while driving people to booking. The report also recommended that officers undergo a Breathalyzer test as soon as possible after crashes.
Siegel and Mamedov are both on active duty, according to their officer profiles on the NYPD website. Siegel is assigned to patrol in Brooklyn’s 73rd Precinct, while Mamedov works in the Video Interactive Patrol Enhanced Response unit, or VIPER unit, which watches public housing security cameras.
The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is still reviewing the incident to determine whether either officer violated department policy, according to police. A Civilian Complaint Review Board investigation is also ongoing. The Police Benevolent Association, which represents both officers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Now that the criminal investigation is closed, Floyd said she hopes the mayor and the police commissioner will fire the officer who killed her brother. She wants people to remember that Smith was a “nice guy” and “a person minding his own business.”
Floyd said she and her brother had a tough childhood, and that Smith had always felt a need to protect her — that he was always holding her hand and wouldn’t let go.
“Even when we were older, even when I didn't need it,” she said. “I just, I haven't got nobody to hold my hand anymore.”
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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