File Photo
This .40-caliber Hi-Point Firearms handgun was recovered at the scene of the fatal shooting in April in South Ozone Park.
By Michael V. Cusenza
There is no basis for criminal proceedings against the City police officers involved in the April shooting death of George Tillman in South Ozone Park, according to a thorough 71-page report released last Friday by the Queens District Attorney’s Office, which concludes that the four 106th Precinct cops acted in self-defense when Tillman pointed his weapon at them.
“Under the circumstances,” DA Richard Brown said, “I believe that any fair and reasonable person would agree that to bring criminal proceedings against the officers would be totally unwarranted. The investigation established that Mr. Tillman was armed with a loaded and operable firearm, that he ignored police commands to drop it and that he pointed it at the police. The involved officers gave consistent accounts that were corroborated in their essential aspects, and in no way contradicted, by video surveillance and civilian witness accounts. Under the circumstances, the police officers were legally entitled to use deadly force to stop Mr. Tillman from firing his weapon at them. I have an ethical duty to institute criminal charges only where there is probable cause to support them. This is not such a case.”
According to Brown, the six-month investigation involved extensive interviews with more than two-dozen witnesses, including the officers involved, police personnel, emergency responders and civilians. The investigation also included the review of video surveillance recordings, police radio runs, 911 call reports, crime scene unit and ballistics reports, the autopsy findings, and DNA analysis.
Tillman’s family has long claimed that he wasn’t armed. A .40-caliber Hi-Point handgun was recovered at the scene of the shooting.
A man who billed himself to the New York Post as a friend of Tillman’s told the paper that the cops shot Tillman, a father of five, in the back as he attempted to flee.
“He was trying to run away, and he had his back turned,” the friend said. “He didn’t have no gun on him. What he did was run.”
In May, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his office, in its capacity as special prosecutor in suspicious police-involved deaths, has declined to conduct an investigation into the Tillman shooting. The chief of the Attorney General’s Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit said that there wasn’t enough evidence to support a probe.
According to Brown’s report, the investigation revealed:
- Two Conditions Unit police officers on plainclothes patrol in an unmarked car observed Tillman at about 1:30 a.m. on April 17, standing by his SUV with a bottle of vodka in his hand. Video captured just prior to their arrival showed Tillman searching for something in the rear of his SUV and then making a motion toward his waist. The officers identified themselves and informed him that he could not have an open bottle of alcohol and that he could not drive if he had been drinking. Tillman handed the bottle to a friend who was with him. At that point, the officers were planning to leave without arresting Tillman.
- But then one of the officers saw what appeared to be a gun in Tillman’s waistband. When the officer asked to talk to Tillman, Tillman began to run while holding his waist with his right hand. The officers gave chase on foot and ordered him to stop, but he continued to run. Another unmarked police car with three officers happened upon the scene. The officers shouted to the arriving officers that Tillman had a gun, and the arriving officers joined in the chase, ordering Tillman to stop and drop the gun. But Tillman continued to run, then turned toward his left and pointed the gun, which was in his right hand, at one of the officers. Four of the five officers fired their weapons. Tillman sustained several gunshot wounds, all of which were consistent with his having turned to his left toward the officer. Only one, a gunshot wound to his left temple, was fatal.
- George Tillman’s DNA was found on the grip, magazine, and slide of the loaded and operable .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol that was found in his right hand when he fell. The evidence shows that only two officers came into contact with the gun – the first officer to arrive at Tillman’s body kicked the gun away with his foot, and a crime scene officer picked the gun up for vouchering while wearing gloves. There was no evidence that any officer touched the gun with bare hands.
- Moreover, although the civilian witnesses did not see the actual shooting, several, including some of Tillman’s family members, stated that Tillman had at some point owned a gun and/or had a gun permit, though the investigation revealed that he was not licensed to own or carry a gun in any state. The gun had been stolen by an unknown person three years before, during a burglary of a home in another state.
The four officers who shot Tillman were visibly distraught in the hours after the incident, according to their commanding officer. Captain James Fey detailed what he observed when he met the officers who were being evaluated at Northwell Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
“They were very upset,” Fey said. “It was clear to me that they had been crying. They were in shock – [they] just took someone’s life.”
