Family of man shot dead by NYPD officers sues for wrongful death
The family of a man shot dead by NYPD officers after a brief chase is suing the police department and the city over the 2019 incident that also claimed the life of a cop, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Bronx Supreme Court.
Antonio Williams, a 27-year-old father of two, was killed in a hail of gunfire after visiting a friend in the Bronx the night of Sept. 29, 2019, lawyers for his estate said.
Killed by friendly fire alongside him was NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen, 33, who wrestled with Williams on the ground as the other officers unleashed a fusillade of bullets intended for Williams.
At a virtual press conference, lawyers for the Williams family showed newly discovered footage of the shooting from an angle not seen before.
The CCTV footage depicts Williams standing on the sidewalk on E. 229th near Laconia Ave. in Edenwald when a group of plainclothes officers pull up in an unmarked car. They get out of their vehicle, yell out to Williams, and a chase ensues as he runs off.
The video shows Mulkeen and two other officers catch up to him and get into a violent struggle with Williams that lasts for approximately 10 seconds. One of the cops is seen punching Williams between eight and 11 times in his head before both men are shot.
“At least six NYPD members discharged their firearms striking and killing both Mr. Williams and Police Officer Mulkeen,” the lawsuit states.
As Williams took his last breaths, the six officers present “unreasonably delayed providing him emergency medical treatment causing him pain and suffering” as they tended to a dying Mulkeen, the lawsuit states.
The video shows officers administering CPR to Williams a full five minutes after the shooting while he lays motionless in handcuffs.
“Theres no way to perform CPR when someone’s hands are behind their back because you can’t get chest compression,” attorney Dave Rankin said.
“I haven’t seen it. I’m glad that we have it — because obviously, the NYPD has been able to control this narrative for far too long,” Williams’ twin sister Nicole Jones said of the video. “I knew that a bunch of NYPD officers had decided it was their right to be the authors of the end of my brother’s story.”
Compounding the family’s grief, said Williams’ parents, brother, and sister on Tuesday, is how authorities portrayed their loved one in the immediate aftermath of the brutal double slaying.
Then-Police Commissioner James O’Neill said the friendly gunfire that killed Officer Mulkeen was not to blame for his tragic death, but that it happened “solely due to a violent criminal.”
The NYPD has yet to clarify what Williams was suspected of doing the night he was chased down and killed.
When asked for clarification, NYPD spokeswoman Detective Sophia Mason declined comment.
“It’s beyond belief. They make the person who’s murdered look like the villain — and the NYPD look like the heroes,” the victim’s father, Shawn Williams, said.
“My son was more than just some negative narrative that the police force created so they could fix the mess they caused.”
Williams’ mother, Gladys, said Thanksgiving is an incredibly painful time of year without her son.
“I remember him coming over, and he would go out with his brothers and play basketball with them,” she said Tuesday, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with her son’s face and name.
“It’s been hard for us,” she added. “Because he’s not with us, and he should be here with us.”
Williams’ brother, Justin, became emotional when he said his family is far from reaching acceptance.
“Justice for our family is the officers to be fired — for them to be tried for unlawfully killing my brother,” he said. “To me, the lawsuit is a lot. But it doesn’t bring him back.”
Attorney Jonathan Moore, who filed the suit, said it seeks damages for Williams’s assault and battery, wrongful death, and negligent police work.
But most importantly, Moore said, it seeks to “tell the true narrative about what happened here,” he said.
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