Unfortunate Use of Prosecutorial Discretion

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Police arrived as a crowd gathered at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue and tried to corral a 250-pound man named Glenn Broadnax. A grand jury indicted the unarmed, emotionally disturbed man on assault charges after police opened fire on him near New York City’s Times Square and wounded two bystanders. Investigators said 35-year-old Broadnax, of Brooklyn, created a disturbance September 14 by lurching into traffic and lunging toward oncoming cars.

According to Raw Story, Broadnax told detectives after his arrest that he’d been talking to dead relatives in his head and was trying to throw himself into oncoming traffic to take his own life.

  

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Witness Kerri-Ann Nesbeth said, after apparently being knocked down by a taxi, “He was very disoriented… It’s almost like he didn’t realize what had happened.” The situation was assessed by professionals, and a psychiatrist later somehow found him competent enough to stand trial, and a judge set bail Wednesday at $100,000. An emotionally-disturbed man caused a commotion by running in front of oncoming traffic near Times Square. Police tried to shoot him, but negligently shot two female bystanders. Now the suspect has been charged with “assault” due to the NYPD’s use of force. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

The 3 bullets fired by NYPD missed Broadnax and hit 2 women in the crowd behind him, including a woman leaning against her walker. Police State USA reported that witnesses had expressed shock that the officers — both of them with 3 years or less experience — had opened fire. “From what I saw, he had nothing in his arms that was a weapon,” said Nesbeth to the New York Times. “My reaction was like, ‘Wait, why are they shooting at him?’”

The two officers, whose names have not been released, remain on administrative duty while an investigation continues into their actions. The officers also face an internal police department inquiry.

Image Credit: Raw Story