Advocates Want Names, Body Cam Footage Of 78-YO Bed-Stuy Shooting

BED-STUY, NY — Two months after cops fatally shot a 78-year-old in his Bed-Stuy apartment, advocates are sending a send a message to the NYPD: Brooklyn will never forget.

At a rally scheduled for Friday evening outside the 81st Precinct headquarters, advocates will demand the names and body-worn camera footage of the officers involved in Robinson's shooting.

"The people here really don't feel seen for the most part," said Shivani Ishwar, lead organizer with New York Community Action Project."It would be a big step for NYPD to release the names of the officers [and footage]."

As the details of Robinson's case become hazy for residents "inundated" with a slew of similar cases, Friday's rally will help reinvigorate Bed-Stuy's call for answers, Ishwar told Patch.

"Cases like this have a brief moment and then they kind of pass," Ishwar said. "We're not just going to forget."

Demonstrators will take to Ralph Avenue between Quincy Street and Gates Avenue — just a couple blocks from where two NYPD officers knocked on Caesar Robinson's door on April 13 investigating a potential burglary, according to police.

Robinson answered the door with a gun in his hand and "clearly charged at officers with his gun" — so they shot him multiple times, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at the time of the shooting.

Neighbors at the time were suspicious of the police narrative without public body-worn camera footage — especially considered the older man struggled to get around.

"Everybody knows him," a neighbor said at the scene in April. "He didn’t do nothing warranted to get shot."

As required by state law, New York Attorney General Letitia James opened an investigation into the shooting in April.

When asked for updates to the case, an NYPD representative said the NYPD's Force Investigation Division was investigating the shooting.

Ishwar and other advocates want the cops responsible for Robinson's death fired, they said.

But Robinson's is just one example of a widespread pattern of police violence without accountability, Ishwar said.

"Cops are really under-punished... for all sorts of misdemeanors," Ishwar said.

Ishwar's group is calling for termination of officers who: have at least three complaints substantiated by the Civilian Complain Review Board; have killed or injured people with reckless driving; or were involved in harmful offenses directed at civilians, including shootings.

"The point of our action this week is to basically remind people," Ishwar said. [And] shine a light on the NYPD's misdeeds in this case."