Attorney General James’ Office of Special Investigation Releases Report on Death of Chatuma Crawford
NEW YORK – New York Legal professional Common Letitia James’ Business of Specific Investigation (OSI) currently produced its report on the dying of Chatuma Crawford in Cicero, Onondaga County. Adhering to a complete investigation, which include assessment of actual physical evidence, eyewitness accounts, crash reconstruction assessment, and overall body-worn camera (BWC) footage, OSI concluded that the officer involved in this scenario did not dedicate a criminal offense.
In the night of December 17, 2021, an off-obligation law enforcement officer with the City of Cicero Police Department (CPD) was driving with a passenger in an SUV on Northern Boulevard in Cicero. According to the officer, even though he was driving in the left lane, he seen that a automobile was stopped on the right shoulder of the street and that a man or woman was standing outside the house the car on the driver’s side. Immediately after he passed the stopped car or truck — while keeping in the still left lane — he hit something with his automobile. The officer stopped the vehicle and promptly called 911. The officer and his passenger the two later on claimed they did not see anything at all in entrance of the motor vehicle prior to affect. An off-obligation member of the Syracuse Law enforcement Department, responding CPD officers, and paramedics carried out daily life-saving actions, but Mr. Crawford was pronounced lifeless at the scene.
Based on the health care examiner’s report and accounts from quite a few witnesses, Mr. Crawford was dressed in all darkish outfits and there ended up no streetlights along Northern Boulevard. The particular person the officer had observed standing exterior the stopped car on the suitable shoulder of the road explained that Mr. Crawford threw a cellphone in the road in direction of the still left lane of site visitors (where the officer was driving) and was strolling in the direction of the cellphone to retrieve it when he was struck. Primarily based on the location of injuries to Mr. Crawford’s physique, the clinical examiner reported it was probable that Mr. Crawford was bent more than at the time of the collision.
As part of the investigation, the New York Condition Police performed a collision reconstruction that concluded that the officer was traveling at a fair velocity, was not impaired, and that the deficiency of road lighting in addition to Mr. Crawford’s dim clothing contributed to the officer’s incapacity to see Mr. Crawford.
The officer also submitted to an alcohol take a look at adhering to the incident, which was negative.
Less than New York regulation, proving criminally negligent homicide calls for proving outside of a reasonable doubt that a particular person unsuccessful to understand a considerable and unjustifiable possibility that demise would manifest that the failure to understand the possibility was a gross deviation from a reasonable person’s conventional of care and that the individual engaged in blameworthy carry out. In this case, there is no proof that the officer was speeding or impaired, and therefore OSI concluded that criminal charges for the officer are not warranted.