Vol. 80/No. 31 August 22, 2016
New facts forced out in NY cop killing of
Mohamed Bah
The New York Daily News reported July 6 that two years after Bah’s death the commanding officer on the scene that day, Michael Licitra, was given a police department “Letter of Instruction.” His misdeed? He broke the chain of command in ordering the breakdown of Bah’s door. Licitra “failed to await authorization from the duty captain prior to taking additional action against an armed emotionally disturbed person who was contained, and posed no immediate threat of danger to any person,” the reprimand reads. His punishment? He was required to review a section of the Patrol Guide.
The original account by a police spokesperson claimed Bah had plunged a 13-inch knife into two officers, slicing their protective vests and prompting Detective Edwin Mateo to yell, “He’s stabbing me, shoot him.”
Later the story changed. Mateo, the cop who is also believed to have fired the fatal shot to Bah’s head, testified that he had been grazed by a police Taser. He acknowledged that no one, in fact, was stabbed.
The knife was never tested for fingerprints. Officials say it and other evidence in the case is now “lost” or “contaminated.” Three official photographs from the scene show first no knife, then the knife in one position and again the knife in a different position.
In November 2013 a grand jury ruled that the “use of deadly physical force was not unlawful” in Bah’s killing.
Hawa Bah, who has become a stalwart protesting other cases of police brutality in New York, has filed a civil lawsuit against the city. In a recent encounter with Mayor Bill de Blasio, she questioned him about her son’s death. “He told me that he admired me for what I am doing for my son,” Bah told the Militant Aug. 2. “I told him I wanted justice. I don’t want another mother to suffer how I have.”
The de Blasio administration has asked a judge to toss out Bah’s suit, as well as a motion filed by her lawyers for sanctions against the city for destruction of key evidence, citing the grand jury ruling that the shooting was justified.
Bah has also called for federal civil rights charges to be filed against the New York Police Department for her son’s killing. This year the Department of Justice declined to bring charges against the NYPD for the 2012 shooting death of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in his own home. A decision is still pending in the 2014 choking death of Eric Garner.
“We will be mobilizing on the anniversary of my son’s killing in September,” Bah said. Details will be coming shortly.
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home