A man shot by a New Rochelle detective after police confronted him about not paying for food at a grocery store died from a bullet wound to the neck that impacted his cervical spine and spinal cord, the Westchester Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday.
Jarrell Garris’ death was ruled a homicide following an autopsy. He was taken off life support Monday night after remaining in a coma since the July 3 shooting.
The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating Garris’ killing, as it does all alleged police killings in New York.
Garris was shot by Detective Steven Conn during a struggle late that afternoon on Lincoln Avenue.
What video released by the city shows
Moments earlier, Officers Kari Bird and Gabrielle Chavarry were trying to question Garris about the complaint police received from New Rochelle Farms, according to police body-camera footage released by the city hours after the shooting.
When Conn arrived, one of the other officers told him the store wanted to press charges. Conn told Garris he was under arrest and began handcuffing him, getting one of the cuffs on his wrist.
Garris started to pull away and Conn and one of the female officers began scuffling with him. At one point, Conn calls for Garris to be tased, and the other female officer pulls out her Taser. It was not clear from the videos if a Taser was ever activated.
Garris eventually topples to the ground with the female officer on top of him, trying to subdue him by grabbing his ankles. The right side of her body was facing Garris and the body cam video and screen shots released by the city appear to show Garris holding onto her holster.
Conn then yelled “He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun” before shooting Garris. State police have said one bullet was fired.
The city’s only statement detailing what happened said that Garris “grabbed an officer’s gun, in an attempt to remove it from the holster.”
The body cam video released publicly stopped before the shooting itself. The city said that was out of sensitivity for Garris’ family, although his relatives have called for the full video to be released.
Garris, a New Rochelle native living in North Carolina for the past year, was in town to pick up his son. He had a history of struggles with mental illness that his family said police were aware of. Demonstrations against the shooting and the store for reporting Garris have closed the intersection of Lincoln and North avenues in recent days.