Vol. 76/No. 31      August 20, 2012

Lembhard, 22, fled into his sister’s house when four cops in the city’s anti-crime squad were chasing him. They forced themselves into the house, where they pumped 15 bullets into him, eight in the back. The cops claim he threatened them with a knife.

From the beginning Lembhard’s family and relatives didn’t buy the cop’s story and decided to put up a fight. They have been demanding an independent investigation, that District Attorney Frank Phillips step down, and that the police responsible be taken off the streets and indicted for murder.

They have pressed these demands through demonstrations, press conferences and at virtually every city council meeting since the shooting. This pressure forced the city June 13 to release the report from the autopsy, conducted more than three months earlier, detailing the number of bullets and their entry points.

The findings of the grand jury changes nothing for the family.

“Yes, they found them not guilty,” Edith King, Lembhard’s aunt, said in a phone interview. “But the fight is not over. On Aug. 13 we start a 15-day vigil outside where he was killed—15 days for 15 shots.”

The vigil will end with a rally Aug. 27. King says they are working to get a panel of speakers backing their demands, which includes someone from the family of Ramarley Graham, 18, who was shot by cops in Bronx, N.Y., in the bathroom of his apartment Feb. 2. After continuous demonstrations, a grand jury June 13 indicted the cop who killed him for first- and second-degree manslaughter.

“We also plan to contact others in the Hudson Valley who have had family members killed by cops,” Omari Shakur, a community activist who is part of the fight, said in a phone interview. Shakur’s son was killed by Newburgh cops in 2006.