Community advocates held a rally on Monday to call for changes in the aftermath of the NYPD's decision in the Kawaski Trawick case.
"The two New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers involved in the fatal shooting of Kawaski Trawick in April 2019 acted within the law for their actions leading up to the 32-year-old man's tragic death," was the first sentence of a statement sent out on Friday from NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban.
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determination came on the weekend that marked five years since Trawick's death.
The rally outside of City Hall came after years of delays. Attendees of the rally and local leaders say that justice for Trawick has yet to be delivered.
"This is cowardice on behalf of the leadership of the city of New York. If you are going to say something, say it with your chest. All right. Come out here and face us," said City Council member Pierina Sanchez.
The moments that led up to his death were all captured-on bodycam footage.
"Police commissioner's statement is trying to hide behind technicalities, around the law, but he's failing to look at his own jurisdiction and saying if they're violating their own patrol guide, they deserve to be fired," said Donavon Taveras, of El Puente. He added what demonstrators will call for during the rally.
"We want cops to be out of mental health response, and that's where our demands are going now since the police commissioner egregiously decided not to fire these officers," Taveras said.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and other advocates made their voices heard and cited a lack of accountability that NYPD officers are held to, and that work needs to be done to fix that.
The Trawick family sent out a statement Friday that says, "Mayor Adams should be ashamed of himself, as a father and as a Black man... and the fact that Adams didn't even let my family know of the decision before making it public is the height of disrespect."
The Police Benevolent Association declined to weigh in on the decision.