Legal Aid Society: Police wrongfully identified suspect in attack, robbery

On Tuesday, police said they believed they found the identity of the suspect: 55-year-old Jeffrey Evans. However, they later told News 12 that the man seen in the video is still wanted, but that it was not Evans.

News 12 Staff

Oct 12, 2021, 10:14 AM

Updated 1,151 days ago

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The Legal Aid Society tells News 12 the NYPD allegedly wrongfully identified a suspect in connection to an attack on a 65-year-old woman back in late September in Fort Greene. 
Police say they are searching for a man seen on video chasing down a 65-year-old woman on Saint Edwards Street near Willoughby Street. 
On Tuesday, police said they believed they found the identity of the suspect: 55-year-old Jeffrey Evans. However, they later told News 12 that the man seen in the video is still wanted, but that it was not Evans. 
“According to the City’s own records, Mr. Evans was in DOC custody at Rikers Island on September 28, 2021, a fact that would make his participation in this upsetting incident impossible,” said Luis Martinez, staff attorney with the Brooklyn Trial Office at the Legal Aid Society. “This is another failed attempt by Commissioner Shea to manufacture a causal relationship between recently enacted bail laws and ‘public safety’ where none exists. Instead of admitting that it is his police force with its bloated personnel and budget that is failing New Yorkers, Shea, predictably, is looking for a scapegoat. The fearmongering and blatant lies peddled by Commissioner Shea and others in law enforcement to undermine the bails reforms, laws that are keeping New Yorkers safe from the scourge that is Rikers Island, must come to an end.”
Anyone with information related to this case is asked to call police.