A disciplinary hearing began on April 24 for the NYPD officer involved in the shooting death of 32-year-old Kawaski Trawick.
Trawick, a Black man, was shot to death in his own apartment in the Bronx on April 14, 2019.
After the police arrived at his apartment at approximately 11:06 p.m., Thompson, who is white, and Davis, who is Black, found Trawick inside his apartment and holding a serrated bread knife and a long stick. Davis, the more experienced officer, repeatedly told Thompson not to use his Taser but he was ignored. The footage captured Davis repeatedly directing Thompson not to deploy his Taser or weapon.
“Why are you in my home?” Trawick repeatedly asked the officers. “Put it down,” Davis replied as Thompson said, “Oh, he’s got a knife.”
“Yeah, I know,” Davis replied.
“I got a knife because I’m cooking,” said Trawick, who went on to say he’d been locked out, but the fire department let him inside. The FDNY had arrived earlier and let Trawick inside his apartment after he falsely reported a fire in his apartment, forcing firefighters to break into the residence.
The police had been called to the Hill House apartment building, a social services center because they had gotten calls from a security guard saying Trawick was banging on neighbors’ doors in the building.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” said Davis as he signaled for Thompson to step back. “We ain’t gonna taze him.”
Thompson pulled out his gun and pointed it at Trawick as he said, “Drop the knife.” He also pulled out his Taser and used it on Trawick, who became upset and began screaming as the officers entered his apartment. Davis then tried to stop Thompson from shooting Trawick by pushing down his gun and saying, “No, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t” as they backed out of the apartment.
Trawick got up and yelled, “I’m gonna kill all of you,” as Thompson backed away while raising his gun and…
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