Off-duty NYPD officer stripped of badge and gun after fatally shooting man during road rage incident
Officer Wayne Isaacs was off duty when he shot Delrawn Small in Brooklyn
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Your support makes all the difference.A police officer has been stripped of his badge and gun while authorities investigate the killing of a citizen when he was off duty.
Officer Wayne Isaacs shot and killed unarmed motorist Delrawn Small in Brooklyn while the officer was in plain clothes and on his way home in an unmarked vehicle.
He was still carrying a handgun, a common procedure of NYPD officers.
Mr Small’s girlfriend Zaquanna Albert told police he was angry because he thought Mr Isaacs had cut him off. He got out of his car at a traffic light on Atlantic Avenue to confront him.
Police said they believed at first that Mr Isaacs shot him two times after Mr Small reached through the open window on the driver’s side and repeatedly punched the officer.
Mr Isaacs was treated at Jamaica Hospital Center for bumps and bruises to the face and head.
A new video shows Mr Isaacs opening fire as soon as Mr Small approaches the car, however, without a clear indication that the officer was assaulted.
In the video, obtained by the New York Post, Mr Small, 37, falls to the ground after being shot.
Mr Isaacs, who has worked in the police for three years, steps out his car and looks towards Mr Small but then returns to his vehicle.
The footage is being investigated by the NYPD and the state Attorney General’s Office.
The officer is still employed at the 79th precinct but has been stripped of his badge and gun, described as "modified duty".
Investigators are “still seeking additional videos,” NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said.
“They're still seeking to identify (a third) motorist who was ... stopped at the red light that may have witnessed some of the circumstances that occurred there.”
At a press conference last week, Mr Small’s brother, Victor Dempsey, said: “His wife was in the car with him. His two kids were there. They were going to see fireworks up by whatever park is in the neighborhood.”
“It has to stop,” he added. “It’s not right that they just get a gun and a badge and they can do what they want to do.”
CBS reported that 12 police cars outside Mr Isaacs’ 79th Precinct station had their tires slashed.
The incident occured on 4 July over the holiday weekend, the same month that two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, were shot dead by white police officers.
At a peaceful protest against the deaths in Dallas, a man killed five police officers and wounded six more.
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