NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The partner of the NYPD officer who fatally shot Kawaski Trawick in his Bronx apartment in 2019 testified at a termination trial on Friday that his partner was mistaken when he fired his taser and service weapon at the man.
A security guard at Trawick’s apartment building called police because the 32-year-old man was acting erratically after locking himself out of his apartment. By the time police arrived, the fire department had already let Trawick back into his apartment, and the situation had seemingly been resolved.
Security and body camera video shows that when the police officers came to his apartment, Trawick became angry and repeatedly asked them, “Why are you in my home?” while holding a stick and bread knife.
Officer Brendan Thompson pointed his taser at Trawick. His more-experienced partner, Herbert Davis, told him not to use it, but Thompson tased Trawick anyway.
After he was tased, Trawick became afraid and enraged, screaming and yelling at the officers to get out.
When Thompson pointed his gun at Trawick, Davis tried to stop him from shooting, briefly pushing his gun down and saying, “No, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t.”
Thompson fired four times, killing Trawick.
Davis admitted his partner was wrong to tase and shoot Trawick during the duo’s internal termination trial on Friday.
In the NYPD’s internal review process, Thompson was charged with improper use of his taser and gun, trespassing and failing to seek medical attention for Trawick.
Davis was only hit with the trespassing and failure to seek medical attention charges.
If found guilty, they would each face termination.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board prosecutor listed alleged issues with both of their behavior that day, repeatedly asking if each step was a mistake. To every question, Davis answered yes.
Davis shocked the courtroom when he returned to the stand minutes later and tried to walk back his earlier statements during cross examination from Thompson’s lawyer.
The Bronx District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against the officers for the shooting, and the NYPD cleared both of them from wrongdoing during an internal investigation.
A ProPublica investigation released Thursday found that the NYPD failed to investigate key exchanges during the incident and failed to follow up with officers when their accounts of the shooting contradicted video evidence.
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