US federal prosecutors to review case of J'can youth killed in The Bronx

United States federal prosecutors say they will review the case of a Jamaican youth killed by a New York Police Department officer to determine whether the civil rights of the unarmed youth were violated.



The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York made the announcement a day after a grand jury in the Bronx, New York refused to re-indict white police officer Richard Haste, who last year shot dead 18-year-old Ramarley Graham.



Haste was indicted in June 2012, four months after the shooting Graham, on February 2, 2012, in the bathroom of his home.



However, in May, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett threw out the case, stating that an assistant district attorney wrongly instructed the grand jury to disregard whether other cops had told Haste that Graham was armed.

Prosecutors say Graham was unarmed.



Barrett gave the Bronx District Attorney’s Office leave to re-indict Haste, but the second grand jury this week decided against a manslaughter charge.



The announcement by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York follows protests yesterday against the grand jury’s decision.



Demonstrators have likened the case to that of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old black youth, who was fatally shot by neighbourhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, in Sanford, Florida.



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