The two cops who fatally shot a 78-year-old Brooklyn man inside his own home should be drummed out of the department, anti-cop advocates said Saturday.
“If people are not safe from the police in their own homes, then where are they safe?” members of the New York Community Action Project asked on Facebook as they announced an upcoming rally at Herbert Von King Park in Bedford Stuyvesant, which is about a mile from where two NYPD officers fatally shot the senior while responding to a report of a crime in progress.
“We demand that the NYPD release the names of these killer cops and fire them!” NYCAP members demanded.
The trouble began Thursday afternoon when someone who knew the elderly man, identified by police sources as Caesar Robinson, called 911, claiming his uncle believed someone was breaking into his apartment, police said.
When cops arrived at the second-floor apartment on Lewis Ave. between Hancock Ave. and Jefferson Ave., Robinson stepped outside with a gun in his left hand, police said.
The officers dove for cover and ordered Robinson to drop his weapon — but when the older man raised his gun, both cops fatally shot him, police said.
NYCAP members said the “horrific and completely unjustified shooting” comes less than a month after cops shot and critically wounded Raul de la Cruz, who was having a mental health episode at his father’s home.
“The NYPD alleges that (Robinson) pointed a firearm at the officers, but this flimsy excuse is no justification for yet another murder of a man in his own home at the hands of the NYPD,” NYCAP members said in their post.
On March 26, de la Cruz approached cops with a knife, which he refused to drop. When he got too close, the cops fired several shots, including two that hit de la Cruz in the chest. He was also shot in his leg.
His family said they called 311 instead of 911 so cops wouldn’t show up, but cops showed up anyway. Relatives said the situation would never have escalated so quickly if dispatchers had sent the right personnel to deal with the situation.
Neighbors said Robinson, who owned his gun illegally but had no prior interactions with the NYPD, was struggling with health issues.
“That old man couldn’t even walk,” neighbor Norma Martinez told the Us.Mistertruth Friday. “He had to use a cane everywhere. But he did do everything himself, groceries and laundry … I know one thing for certain — that old man did not deserve to die.”
State Attorney General Tish James’ office has opened an investigation into the deadly encounter.
His death was one of three police shootings that took place Thursday. The other incidents involved someone who stabbed a security guard at a Queens store and a man threatening people at a Bronx train station with a B.B. gun.
The rally is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday begnining at the Marcy and Green Aves. side of the park, advocates said.