The family of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed teen killed by police in the Bronx, said on Wednesday they filed a lawsuit against the NYPD after the department didn’t comply with a Freedom of Information Act request.
The filing came on what would have been Graham’s 24th birthday.
Graham was 18 when he was killed in February 2012 after former police officer Richard Haste chased him into his Bronx apartment and shot him as he tried to flush marijuana down the toilet. Haste said he believed Graham was armed, but no gun was found.
Last month, Haste resigned from the NYPD after he was found guilty on all counts by a department trial commissioner. A grand jury had declined to re-indict him on manslaughter charges in 2013 after a judge dismissed an earlier indictment.
“My son should be celebrating his 24th birthday today, but instead my family is being forced to continue fighting for justice because the de Blasio administration has shown no real commitment to justice for him and black lives like his,” Constance Malcolm, Graham’s mother, said in a statement.
The FOIL, submitted in September, pertained to the conduct of the officers involved in the shooting and its aftermath.
An NYPD representative said the department does not comment on pending litigation. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said they “will review the legal papers when we are served.”
