Tensions Rise Over Cop Shooting In New Rochelle

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — News that New York’s attorney general will be investigating the fatal shooting of Jarrell Garris, 37, of New Rochelle, his family, the city and a coalition of law enforcement labor organizations are weighing in.

The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation announced Monday it is looking into Garris’s shooting. He died Monday after being shot July 3.

Officers Kari Bird, Gabrielle Chavarry and Detective Steven Conn were placing him under arrest when he physically resisted. Body cam footage released by the New Rochelle Police Department appears to show Garris grabbing an officer’s gun and attempting to remove it from the holster.

While trying to take Garris into custody, Conn fired one round from his department-issued firearm, striking Garris.

For its part, the city of New Rochelle called the involvement of a New Rochelle police officer in a shooting a “trauma” for the entire community.

“For the family and friends of Jarrell Garris, that trauma is infinitely more personal, and our thoughts are with them at a moment of heavy, painful grief,” the city’s statement said

Through a spokeswoman, the city said it is dedicated to supporting a thorough outside investigation and welcomes the engagement and leadership of the attorney general, who has the authority to make all decisions related to the release of additional information, including body camera footage.

“The City has no objection to the release of such information, if judged appropriate by the AG,” the statement said.

Det. Keith Olson, president of the Affiliated Police Associations of Westchester, released a statement that said there is “no such thing as a ‘routine’ arrest,” and reminded the public that “the unpredictable actions of one person can instantly elevate a simple arrest to a life and death situation.”

While offering the organization’s condolences to Garris’s family and to the New Rochelle community, Olson said the APA was pleased that the New Rochelle police quickly released the body-worn camera footage so the public can have “a true understanding of what happened and why.”

Olson said everyone should be aware that Garris “had a lengthy criminal past and a history of mental health issues, including schizophrenia.”

At the time of his death, Garris was on probation for felony arson, the statement said, and with his probation supervision transferred to North Carolina, he was not authorized to be in New York.

Olson added that Garris had, earlier in the day of the shooting, broken into the home of a New Rochelle resident.

“While the New Rochelle officers attempting to arrest Mr. Garris may not have known his complete criminal and mental health history, they did know that he was properly and legally subject to arrest,” the APA statement said.

“The simple yet tragic fact is that Detective Conn’s actions were made necessary by the actions of Jarrell Garris,” Olson said.

In response to Olson and the police association, William O. Wagstaff III, a spokesman for Garris’s family, said the APA’s statement was “defensive, insensitive and irresponsible.”

Wagstaff said that even more distressing was the “blatant character assassination” of Garris.

“The exposé of his criminal record and personal history is legally irrelevant to the fundamental question of what the shooting legally justified,” Wagstaff said.

“The association has taken an excerpt from page 2 of the police PR playbook, the classic, but he was a criminal routine, which suggests that someone’s past makes their extra-judicial killing acceptable,” Wagstaff said. “It does not.”