No Justice for Jayson Tirado

Following up on a story that I have discussed in the past, it appears that the NYPD officer who shot and killed an unarmed motorist in East Harlem back in October of 2007, then disappeared for 19 hours before turning himself in, will not face any criminal charges for his actions. As a quick refresher, Jayson Tirado and Sean Sawyer were driving on FDR Drive when they were diverted to East 116th street due to an accident on the highway. In the course of exiting the highway, Mr. Tirado cut off Sean Sawyer, at which point words were exchanged. They continued driving and caught up to each other at a red light, when more words were exchanged and Mr. Tirado allegedly made a reference to a gun. At this point - and this is where most of the contention in this case lies - Sawyer says that Tirado reached for something on the floor of his car and came up as if he had a gun. It is at this point that Sawyer fired two shots and sped away from the scene. Tirado was able to drive a few blocks before slumping over the steering wheel, dead. Sawyer was MIA until 19 hours later, when he decided to turn himself in. Both parties had been drinking that night.

So rack this up as another killing of an unarmed minority at the hands of the NYPD; a killing that will go unpunished. Civil rights charges will not be brought against Sawyer (nor should they be) because the man was acting as a civilian and was not in the course of his duties as a civil servant. But let's look at the most glaring facts of this case: Sawyer shot twice at a car in the middle of East Harlem and did not report the incident until 19 HOURS later, when he walked to a police station and told a sergeant about what had happened. Sawyer claimed that he did not even know anyone was hit and once he realized someone had been killed, he turned himself in. Does this mean that if he did not hit anyone that he never would have alerted his superiors of his actions?

Manhattan DA Morgenthau has said that Sawyer did not receive preferential treatment because of his status as a cop. So if I thought that someone were pulling a weapon on me, I could shoot and kill that person and wait almost an entire day before getting around to reporting it and I would not be charged with a crime? Something about that seems a bit odd. Additionally, if Sawyer was able to see Tirado place his hands in the car and come up as if he had a gun, wouldn't Sawyer be able to see if Tirado actually had a gun? It seems that Sawyer saw and heard a great amount in detail up until the critical moment of identifying a weapon.

Other points of Sawyer's story seem suspect. Sawyer says that he was cut off by Tirado and that Tirado started an argument with Sawyer. That doesn't even make sense. You mean to tell me that Tirado cut off Sawyer and Sawyer did absolutely nothing and Tirado then berated Sawyer for allowing him to cut Sawyer off? That just doesn't add up. Let's not forget that by fleeing the scene of the "crime" Sawyer did not have to take a Breathalyzer test. Various news outlets have reported that Sawyer was out at a Woodside bar for a good amount of time before killing Tirado, who had also been drinking.

Going back to the basics of this story: a cop killed an unarmed minority in New York City and will face no legal repercussions (yet again). Sawyer will most likely lose his job, but he has been suspended WITH PAY since the incident, so he has had plenty of time to get his act together to find new employment. If the roles were reversed and Tirado had shot Sawyer thinking that Sawyer had a gun, do you think that Tirado would walk away from a grand jury as a free man? I will end this post with two quotes. The first is part of a Big L verse that has more relevance of late: "One [cop] murdered my man like it was OK / For the life he ended, he got suspended with no pay / But if a man woulda took the cop life, he woulda got life / And never again see the street lights and that's trife." The final quote is from Tirado's fiancee's lawyer: "He [Sawyer] didn't even get ticketed for littering for leaving Jayson Tirado's body on the street!" Peace.

Photos - Sean Sawyer (www.nydailynews.com), Jayson Tirado and his daughter (www.nytimes.com), Officers inspecting Tirado's car following the early morning shooting (www.nypost.com)

Daniel Talbot and Sean Sawyer Updates

Robert Iacoviello, Jr. (My Fox Boston)

Something Just Doesn't Add Up II
More information has come out of the ultra-secret case of Daniel Talbot - the Revere police officer who was killed while "socializing" behind Revere High at the end of September this year. There were various parts of the case that did not sit right with me (and a lot of other people from what I have read and heard.) Questions have remained unanswered: why were the officers hanging out behind Revere High at 1:30 in the morning? Why did they believe that their faces would arouse trouble at neighborhood bars? Why were search warrants sealed (which was later ruled as illegal)? What about the alleged confession? Who made it? My confidence in the prosecution's case waned even more as more pieces of information have been released as the case begins to enter the trial phase. It was revealed that a fourth police officer was at the scene - not just any officer, a sergeant. To make it even weirder, the other officers involved (Officers Soto and Bruzzese) in the incident have returned to work after being placed on administrative leave, but Sergeant Evan Franklin (the fourth officer) has not been allowed to return to work and remains on paid leave. What was Franklin's role in the whole incident? Good luck getting an answer. All we know is, according to the prosecutor, "When the shooting started, he left." When asked about why he was not back on duty like the others on the scene, Revere police spokesman Captain Michael Murphy said it was a departmental decision, adding "It's sort of an open-ended thing."

So what is the official story from the prosecutor? Apparently Derek Lodie was cutting through the Revere High area when he got into an argument with Talbot and his group. Words were exchanged, Lodie called up Robert Iacoviello Jr., a 20 year old from Revere, who came back to the park with Lodie and as Talbot and Soto approached Lodie, Iacoviello shot Talbot in the head. Soto shot back, missing both Lodie and Iacoviello, then went to tend to Talbot. What was their commanding officer, Sergeant Franklin, doing at this time? We do not know. Did the men identify themselves as cops? We don't know, but I'd imagine if they did the prosecution would try to hammer that point home. After killing Talbot, Iacoviello called up accomplices (who? the prosecution will not say), who helped him break up the gun and dump it in various storm drains. More questions: Why did the group get into an argument with Lodie? Why did they not identify themselves as cops? Why did they not call for uniformed, sober officers? Again, the prosecutor needs to explain these things, because the story he weaves seems to have holes in it, especially with so much information being withheld initially. Additionally, how much more do we not know about this case, given that Sergeant Franklin's presence was just recently released? I say turn this over to the feds so that no politics (or, at least, minimal politics) play into this.

Justice for the Tirado Family?

A memorial for Jayson Tirado (Free Republic)

Thanks to Xavier, the commenter on the Tirado post, for alerting me to new information regarding his friend's murder. It appears that Sean Sawyer was at a bar with an unnamed woman from the Queens DA's Office who says that all Sawyer drank was Coke - for 12 hours. Now, in my mind, it does not seem difficult to verify this story. Take a look at Sawyer's tab from the bar (if he paid with a credit card) or, if he paid with cash, talk to the bartender (who surely must remember Sawyer and this unidentified woman if they were there from the time Sawyer got off work [5 p.m.] to the time that Tirado was shot [7 a.m. the next day]). As far as X's assertion that Sawyer is "banging" the woman from the DA's office, the Post article that he linked to in his comment does not directly say that. It says that Sawyer argued with his wife before going to the bar with, as the Post puts it, his "lady friend." I will let you come to your own conclusions on that one. The Post article also points out that it is unclear how much time the pair spent together and when they split up. So we have a huge chunk of critical time before the incident happened during which Sawyer's whereabout and actions are unknown (don't forget the nearly 19 hours after the shooting when Sawyer pulled a disappearing act.)

The pressure on the NYPD has been mounting as of late, with shootings of unarmed black men occurring more frequently. The treatment of these officers after the shootings is also a bit prejudiced, with the cops always earning the benefit of the doubt (Sean Sawyer's case is the epitome of this). I have also read on various threads, etc. that this seems to be a New York phenomenon, with people suggesting that police are underpaid and undertrained. This may be true, especially considering that other police departments do not shoot the amount of unarmed dark-skinned people that the NYPD does (or, if they do, then it is not being reported on). Just look at the Sean Bell case and another case that is extremely similar with a white correctional officer up in Rhode Island. It would be interesting if someone (because I do not have the time right now) put together a data sheet of shootings of unarmed suspects in large metropolitan areas, broke it down by race, and then looked at it per capita to see if New York really does have a disproportionate amount of unarmed shootings of suspects, and if race plays a part in these incidents.

Justice for the Tirado Family?

Jayson Tirado (NYTimes)

Unfortunately, the way things are going right now, it seems as if that may never happen. I am returning from a sabbatical from the blog (intended to focus on midterms) with the outrageous story of Sean Sawyer, an undercover narcotics officer for the NYPD in Queens. Sawyer, 34, was involved in a road rage incident with Jayson Tirado, 25, and ended up shooting Tirado three times with his off-duty gun as the two argued in East Harlem. The two sides are actually telling the same story, that as the argument, which lasted more than 5 blocks, got more heated between the two, Tirado is said to have pointed his finger at Sawyer and made an allusion to a firearm. Sawyer felt this was enough to shoot Tirado and leave the scene - for 24 hours. That's right, trained NYPD cop Sean Sawyer left the scene of a shooting that he committed for almost 24 hours before turning himself in to police early Monday morning. If it was a "justified" shooting, then why flee the scene? Sawyer does not seem to want to share that information with cops, nor will he say what he was doing between 7 PM - when he got off of his shift for the po - and 5:30 AM, when the shooting took place. It seems that the two were forced to exit the FDR due to an earlier motorcycle accident and that is when Sawyer tried to merge in front of Tirado. Tirado would not allow him to and this pissed him off. He exchanged words with Tirado and then sped off. It appears he said to the occupants of Tirado's car, "I'm going to have to cap one of you niggas." Tirado, apparently pissed off too, caught back up to Sawyer, pulled in front of him and stopped. That's when this whole business of Tirado's threat was said to happen. Then Sawyer blasted off three rounds into the car without identifying himself as NYPD, fatally hitting Tirado, and sped off, ran a red light and disappeared for 24 hours before turning himself in.

Sean Sawyer (NY Daily News)

There are two witnesses from the car, but one remembers nothing because he apparently had blacked out from alcohol. The other one, though, is the one providing the story (including Tirado's Ruger threat, which seems to have gotten him killed.)  I would be hesitant to believe anything that Sawyer says, as he disappeared for 24 hours before turning himself in, thus had plenty of time to consult people (the Times says "reaching out to people") and potentially get a good story going. After being questioned for a few hours, Sawyer was allowed to leave the 25th Precinct stationhouse. So let's go over the questions we need answered: Why did Sawyer hide out for 24 hours before turning himself in? What was he doing out so late at night getting into arguments with random drivers? Was he drunk? (that will never be answered, even after he turned himself in he was not administered a breathalyzer, standard NYPD procedure after a shooting). Would Tirado be given the same presumption of innocence/ridiculously lenient treatment if he had been the shooter of Sawyer under the same circumstances?

So, why did Sawyer hide out for 24 hours? I would guess he was intoxicated at the time of the shooting and needed to sober up before turning himself in, but that is simply speculation. Either way you cut it, however, it is a stupid thing to do, as any person in this country has an obligation to call the police when they have shot someone. Inexcusable, especially for a cop. Why did Sawyer even say anything to Tirado after not being allowed to merge? A great quote from a friend of mine's father is applicable here: "Nothing good happens after midnight." This fits in here because it's 5:30 AM in East Harlem, why are you stirring the shit with someone you have never seen before in your life? This, again, would point to one being drunk, but that is speculation.

Jayson Tirado's car near the scene of the shooting
(Gothamist)

Now, let's look at the situation if it were reversed. Let's say Tirado is the triggerman, after having started the whole incident like Sawyer did, and he does not turn himself in until 24 hours later. He would be roasted in the press, Trump may be calling for the death penalty, Ray Kelly would stand stone-faced in front of a mic for a press conference and denounce Tirado, and certainly, under no circumstances, would he be allowed to leave the stationhouse after questioning and would be arrested immediately. No way would he be handled with kid gloves like Sawyer has been. Let's face it: Sawyer was off-duty in his personal vehicle. He was a citizen at the time, not a cop on duty. He is soiling the badge, as it puts all police officers (even the good ones) in a bad light when something like this happens and they are not punished like a regular person in society would be. If I were a cop, I would not only be upset by Sawyer's actions, but by the response of the police and the DA's office in this case, who are rumored to be pondering whether or not to press charges. As if it were a question.

In fact, the DA is leaning in the direction of the shooting being justified. Cops should not be given this much leeway in the justice system. It has been confirmed that Sawyer was the one who threatened violence first, saying that he was going to "cap one of you niggas" to the occupants in Tirado's Honda. Now if Tirado had shot Sawyer out of self-defense after being threatened to be shot, I doubt that he would be out on the streets right now like Sawyer is.

Sawyer has his defenders, namely his brother, who exclaims to the press that it was a "clean shoot. He did what the city hired him for. You do not reach down into a car on a New York City police officer." 1) His brother was not even there, so how does he know it was a "clean shoot," and 2) citizens should be allowed to put their hands wherever they want to in their car without fear of being shot to death. He did what the city hired him to do? The city hired him to kill an unarmed person in a road rage incident? I hope not. It is an absolute travesty if the Manhattan DA's office does not look into this matter with the utmost scrutiny, as it is clear that Sawyer committed a grave crime here and should not be let off the hook simply because he is a cop.