Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
The scene at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue after officers fired at a man who was darting in and out of traffic on Sept. 14.
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: December 4, 2013
An unarmed, emotionally disturbed man shot at by the police as he was lurching around traffic
near Times Square in September has been charged with assault, on the
theory that he was responsible for bullet wounds suffered by two
bystanders, according to an indictment unsealed in State Supreme Court
in Manhattan on Wednesday.
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The man, Glenn Broadnax, 35, of Brooklyn, created a disturbance on Sept.
14, wading into traffic at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue and throwing
himself into the path of oncoming cars.
A curious crowd grew. Police officers arrived and tried to corral Mr.
Broadnax, a 250-pound man. When he reached into his pants pocket, two
officers, who, the police said, thought he was pulling a gun, opened
fire, missing Mr. Broadnax, but hitting two nearby women. Finally, a
police sergeant knocked Mr. Broadnax down with a Taser.
The shootings once again raised questions about the police use of
firearms in crowded areas and drew comparisons to a shooting a year ago,
when officers struck nine bystanders in front of the Empire State Building when they killed an armed murder suspect.
Initially Mr. Broadnax was arrested on misdemeanor charges of menacing,
drug possession and resisting arrest. But the Manhattan district
attorney’s office persuaded a grand jury to charge Mr. Broadnax with
assault, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years. Specifically,
the nine-count indictment unsealed on Wednesday said Mr. Broadnax
“recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death.”
“The defendant is the one that created the situation that injured
innocent bystanders,” said an assistant district attorney, Shannon
Lucey.
The two police officers, who have not been identified, have been placed
on administrative duty and their actions are still under investigation
by the district attorney’s office, law enforcement officials said. They
also face an internal Police Department inquiry.
Mr. Broadnax’s lawyer, Rigodis Appling, said Mr. Broadnax suffered from
anxiety and depression and had been disoriented and scared when the
police shot at him. He was reaching for his wallet, not a gun, she said.
“Mr. Broadnax never imagined his behavior would ever cause the police
to shoot at him,” she said.
After his arrest, Mr. Broadnax was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center,
where he told a detective that “he was talking to dead relatives in his
head and that he tried throwing himself in front of cars to kill
himself,” according to a court document released on Wednesday.
A judge ordered a mental evaluation, and a psychiatrist later found Mr.
Broadnax competent to stand trial, Ms. Appling said.
On Wednesday, Justice Gregory Carro set bail at $100,000 bond or $50,000 cash.
Mariann Wang, a lawyer representing Sahar Khoshakhlagh, one of the women
who was wounded, said the district attorney should be pursuing charges
against the two officers who fired their weapons in a crowd, not against
Mr. Broadnax. “It’s an incredibly unfortunate use of prosecutorial
discretion to be prosecuting a man who didn’t even injure my client,”
she said. “It’s the police who injured my client.”
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