Newman Ferrara attorneys, Debra Cohen and Prof. Randolph McLaughlin, are quoted in this news report released on Wednesday.
NEW ROCHELLE — Lawyers for the family of Samuel Cruz, the emotionally disturbed New Rochelle man shot and killed by police last month, said haste and inadequate police training led to the fatal outcome.
“They broke the door down, they rushed in and they shot him,” Randolph McLaughlin said of the officers who responded on May 28 to a call that Cruz, 48, [pictured below], was holed up in his Hickory Street apartment and in distress.
McLaughlin and Debra Cohen, co-chairs of the civil rights practice group at the Manhattan-based law firm Newman and Ferrara, are representing Cruz’s widow, Elsa Cruz, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Frances. They said they would file a notice of claim with New Rochelle on Wednesday, the first step filing in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The have scheduled a Wednesday-morning press conference at City Hall.
“What’s so tragic in this case is Samuel Cruz’ wife called 911 and said her husband needed help,” Cohen said, adding that Elsa Cruz made it clear to the
dispatcher that her husband was emotionally disturbed and off his medications. “She called for help. She had no idea it was going to end a short time later with five officers on the scene and her husband dead.”
Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll has said the shooting was justified. According to police accounts, police forced open the door to Cruz’ third-floor apartment and, in an effort to subdue him, Tasered him twice. When Cruz lunged at Officer Steven Geertgens with a 6-inch knife, Geertgens shot him.
“When the knife came into play, you are bringing in deadly physical force,” Carroll said in the days following the incident.
McLaughlin and Cohen challenge that narrative, saying Elsa Cruz, who was in the building throughout the incident, heard a gunshot just moments after she heard police use a crowbar to open the apartment door.
The two lawyers said police are typically trained to be patient and use restraint in responding to situations involving emotionally disturbed people. The whole incident, McLaughlin said, from the moment police arrived at Cruz’ apartment at around 1:30 p.m. to his death, took about two hours.
“I think the blame for this case has to be placed at the feet of the city of New Rochelle,” McLaughlin said.
The case shares more than a few similarities with the 2011 shooting death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., a White Plains resident also described as emotionally disturbed. In that case, police responded to Chamberlain's apartment when his medical alert device accidentally went off.
After a standoff, police in riot gear took down the door. Chamberlain was shot and killed when, according to police, he lunged at an officer with a knife.
No officers were charged in the shooting; a federal civil suit is ongoing.
McLaughlin represents the Chamberlain family, too.
“I think it’s inadequate training of police, I think it’s inadequate policy,” he said. “There needs to be a message that goes out that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.”