Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch has ordered a department trial for a police officer who shot and killed a man more than 10 years ago in Brooklyn, the victim’s family said Wednesday.
The officer, Wayne Isaacs — who said he acted in self-defense when he killed Delrawn Small during a confrontation on July 4, 2016 — could lose his job if he is found guilty of improper use of force and police misconduct for the shooting.
The departmental trial, which is expected to start on Jan. 13 and last three days, would be the latest development in a case that began with a traffic dispute in the Cypress Hills neighborhood.
Grainy surveillance video captured Mr. Small, a 37-year-old father of three, getting out of his car and approaching Officer Isaacs at a stoplight after the officer had cut him off. Officer Isaacs, dressed in plain clothes and driving home from work, said he worried he was about to be carjacked and fired his personal firearm at Mr. Small, hitting him in the arm, chest and abdomen.
In September 2016, the New York State attorney general charged Officer Isaacs with second-degree murder and manslaughter, accusing him of firing his gun in a fit of road rage.
A jury acquitted him of all counts in November 2017, and Mr. Small’s family sued the officer in federal civil court, winning a settlement from the city.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent civilian panel that examines police misconduct, investigated the case and concluded that Officer Isaacs had violated the department’s rules and regulations on use of force. Officer Isaacs was scheduled to face a department trial last year.
But on the eve of trial, Officer Isaacs argued through his lawyers that he was not on duty when he shot Mr. Small and therefore the review board had no jurisdiction over his case.
Lawyers for the board pointed out that during his federal civil case, Officer Isaacs had tried to argue that the case against him should be dismissed because he was acting in his capacity as a police officer, meaning he could not be sued personally. The federal court dismissed that motion.
But Rosemarie Maldonado, the deputy commissioner of trials, agreed with Officer Isaacs’s lawyers, saying that the officer never took out his shield or identified himself as a police officer when he shot Mr. Small. Ms. Maldonado recommended that the charges be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
On Aug. 28, Ms. Tisch reversed Ms. Maldonado in a two-page decision that pointed out the officer’s double-sided argument.
Officer Isaacs’s “position is that he was taking police action, but that nevertheless C.C.R.B. lacks jurisdiction over an allegation of excessive force arising from that police action,” she wrote. “That is untenable.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Small’s family met with lawyers from the review board at their officers in Lower Manhattan to talk about the upcoming trial. After the meeting, Mr. Small’s brother, Victor Dempsey, 40, said he was grateful that the commissioner had ordered the trial but remained dubious that it would bring justice.
“Our family has been fighting for more than 10 years,” he said. “The only outcome that needs to come out of this is Wayne Isaacs being fired.”
Mr. Dempsey stood with his nephew Kyree Small, 27, who was 16 years old when his father was killed. Kyree Small said that after the shooting he was forced to become a father figure to his younger brother and sister, who are now 10 and 23.
“I cannot get my brother back,” Mr. Dempsey said. “Kyree cannot get his father back.”
In a statement, Dakota Gardner, a spokesman for the review board, said the agency was “pleased that Commissioner Tisch recognizes the importance of a trial in this case.”
“C.C.R.B. prosecutors are confident in the strength of the evidence and look forward to arguing their case early next year,” Mr. Gerber said.
Patrick Hendry, the spokesman for the Police Benevolent Association, said Officer Isaacs had not only been acquitted, but also cleared of misconduct through internal department investigations. He accused the review board of trying to “erase any remaining due process protections for police officers.”
“It defies belief that this case is still ongoing,” Mr. Hendry said in a statement. “We will continue to fight this case and every instance of C.C.R.B.’s blatant overreach.”
In her decision, Ms. Tisch said she was not ordering a trial based on the merits of the case, but on her conclusion that the review board had jurisdiction.
The review board claimed that Officer Isaacs used excessive force, she wrote.
“It is undisputed,” she wrote, that Officer Isaacs “was taking police action when he used that force.”
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