Unarmed Man Shot At By NYPD Has Been Charged With Assault Because Bullets Hit Bystanders

by Rania Khalek on December 5, 2013

35-year-old Glenn Broadnax (Ken Murray / New York Daily News)

Glenn Broadnax, a 35-year-old Black man from Brooklyn, was unarmed on the night of September 14 when NYPD officers shot at him in the middle of Times Square, striking two bystanders.

Instead of apologizing, the New York Times reports that the city has charged Broadnax “with assault, on the theory that he was responsible for bullet wounds suffered by two bystanders.”

Broadnax was emotionally disturbed and dodging cars in the middle of the street when officers say he reached into his pocket to grab what they believed was a weapon, prompting them to open fire. His lawyers says he was reaching for his wallet.

So, because the NYPD is made up of trigger happy, crappy marksmen who fire at unarmed black people with impunity, Broadnax might spend up to 25 years in prison on trumped up assault charges, which the Manhattan district attorney insisted on:

Initially Mr. Broadnax was arrested on misdemeanor charges of menacing, drug possession and resisting arrest. But the Manhattan district attorney’s office persuaded a grand jury to charge Mr. Broadnax with assault, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years. Specifically, the nine-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday said Mr. Broadnax “recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death.”

“The defendant is the one that created the situation that injured innocent bystanders,” said an assistant district attorney, Shannon Lucey.

Meanwhile, the two cops who did the shooting are on desk duty pending an investigation. If the past is any indication, that means they will be back on the streets in no time.