Rochester police cleared in fatal shooting of Timothy Flowers. His mom still has questions

Two Rochester police officers were cleared of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of Timothy Flowers last year, according to a report from the New York Attorney General’s Office.

Flowers, 29, was shot and killed by officers Samuel Giancursio and Michael Bennett on June 4, 2021 during a shootout on Avenue D between Hudson Avenue and North Street. The officers said they returned fire after Flowers shot at them during a foot chase in an attempt to evade arrest for his connection to other shootings around the city.

Flowers was shot nine times in the torso, arms and legs, according to the report.

The Office of Special Investigation determined the “use of deadly physical force was justified” in the shooting after a review of evidence including witness interviews, radio transmissions and ballistics testing, a press release said.

The unit within the AG's office investigates every incident where police officers, on or off-duty, may have contributed to the death of a civilian.

The two officers were part of the Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) Team who, by Rochester Police Department policy, do not use body-worn cameras, so there is no video of the shooting. The attorney general’s office recommended RPD revisit the policy for the team to provide “increased transparency and accountability.”

Prior to the incident, officers considered Flowers a “high-risk apprehension” and were warned by a family member that he was “likely to fire at the police if officers attempted to arrest him,” according to the report.

Following the shooting, an analysis by the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network matched a 9mm pistol “found in Mr. Flowers’s hand” to casings collected from three shootings on May 3, 6 and 10, 2021 in Rochester.

“In this case, Mr. Flowers had fired at one officer and was pointing his gun at the second officer when that officer fired,” a press release from the state Attorney General’s Office said. “Both officers were aware that Mr. Flowers was suspected of shooting and wounding other individuals in three recent incidents. Based on the law and under these circumstances, OSI determined a prosecutor would not be able to disprove that the RPD officers’ actions were justified.”

More:Read the full investigation report

'Handled completely differently, I may still have my son'

But Telena Banks still has questions about how her son died.

Why didn't police try to apprehend Flowers during a routine meeting with his parole officer – what she believes to be a safer, more controlled setting?

If police anticipated violence that night, why didn't they seek special permission to use body-worn cameras – at the very least to capture evidence that could protect themselves and remove any doubt over what happened?

"Did anybody ask what this was about?" Banks said Monday.

Banks said she believes the crimes her son was allegedly a part of shortly before his death were the result of a conflict with a city gang. She said Flowers told her he was being harassed and threatened after stepping in to protect a young woman who was being attacked by a group of men.

Banks said the gang responded by putting a hit on Flowers: They allegedly shot up his home and car, followed him around the city, and sent out photos of Flowers and his two young children, 3 and 8 at the time, as targets.

"There's a lot of things going on within this story that nobody is talking about," Banks said. "I was thinking this man was going to kill him. I never thought it would be the police."

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Banks said she isn't trying to make her son seem like an "innocent bystander." But she believes he at least deserved to have his day in court, and that his death reveals a broken system for Black men in Rochester.

'What help do men in Rochester have'

Since he was young, Telena Banks said she has tried to advocate for counseling and a better education for her son to no avail. As violence peaked last year in Rochester, Flowers asked his parole officer to allow him to move to North Carolina, where Banks now lives. He was denied the opportunity.

"What help do men in Rochester have?" Banks said. "They want to make my son seem like a demon. The way they obtained him – the way they murdered him."

She said the tip that Flowers would put up a fight with police came from a family member he was not on good terms with, and likely contaminated any chance of a safe arrest.

"They could've came to me," Banks said. "Or why not call him through parole? I just think it could've been handled completely differently and I may still have my son.

"I think (the police) came with the idea that Timothy was violent and responded that way," she said. "I think it was excessive. Timothy was shot at 20 times. Nine bullets landed in him."

Banks said she would like the Rochester Police Department to outfit all of its officers with body-worn cameras, regardless of unit or mission. The Attorney General's office concurs, recommending that the Rochester Police Department review its body-worn camera policy to include SWAT team officers moving forward in line with a national trend.

"Do I accept it? I'm told I have no choice," she said of the Attorney General's findings. "That the only choice I have is to come to Rochester and protest and run amok and cry and yell. That is not how I want to celebrate my son. Doing so only puts myself and my family at risk.

"I care about Rochester and about the people I love. I don't want to see turmoil there. The justice that I'm looking for can happen if the procedures change and if the cops are held more accountable. I shouldn't have to come out there and start a war," Banks said.

Timeline of Timothy Flowers' alleged crimes and his death

Police said they initially suspected Flowers’ involvement in a series of city shootings across one week after witness interviews, surveillance videos and fingerprints linked him to the three crimes.

On May 10, they allege Flowers fired at least 10 rounds into a passing minivan on Sumner Park, hitting one of the passengers in the neck and paralyzing them from the waist down. As the shooter fled the scene, video surveillance caught him touching a nearby parked car covered in pollen. Fingerprints lifted from the car matched fingerprints from Flowers from a previous arrest.

Gun casings and depictions from surveillance video matched two other shootings on May 3 and 6, the report said.

Investigators sought to question Flowers in all three shootings and charged him with attempted murder for the Sumner Park incident.

On June 4, RPD’s tactical unit located Flowers after tracking his cellphone and car to a hotel on Hylan Drive around 4:45 p.m. Flowers was with a woman and two small children, and the SWAT team commander instructed officers to wait to arrest Flowers until he was alone, considering him “armed and extremely dangerous,” according to the report.

But when police attempted to corner a solo Flowers in a parking lot on Hudson Avenue around 9 that evening, he fled.

In interviews with investigators, Giancursio and Bennett said Flowers hid at the rear of a house on Avenue D and started shooting down a driveway toward Giancursio, who returned fire. One of the bullets tore through Giancursio’s pants, but did not strike the officer, forensic evidence shows.

Bennett said he approached Flowers from the opposite side of the house and, seeing Flowers aim a pistol in the last-known direction of Giancursio’s location, “... pointed his SWAT issued rifle at Mr. Flowers” and shouted for him to drop the gun multiple times.

Flowers ignored the command turned the pistol toward Bennett, the officer told investigators.

Bennett fired his rifle “until Mr. Flowers fell backward onto the driveway.”

Flowers was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital, where he later died.

More:RPD cleared in death of Mark Gaskill

Flowers was the third of five individuals killed by police in Rochester in 2021.

Attorney General Letitia James also cleared RPD of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of Mark Gaskill last year. Her office is still investigating the deaths of Dedrick James and Simran Gordon.

Nationwide, 1,331 individuals were killed by police in 2021, according to data from the gunviolencearchive.org.

So far in 2022, 888 individuals have been killed by police, none in Rochester.

What New York law says about police use of deadly force

• the suspect committed a felony using physical force;

• the suspect committed a felony using physical force, and is armed with a firearm or deadly weapon while attempting to resist arrest or escape custody;

• the use of deadly physical force against a suspect is necessary to defend the police officer from what he or she “reasonably believes” to be deadly physical force directed their way

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester police cleared in fatal shooting of Timothy Flowers