NYPD Shooting Victim Mourners Claim Harassment
Al Jones/1010wins.com
A memorial marks the life and death of Shem Walker on the stoop of 360 Lafayette Avenue.
Supporters of a man fatally shot by an undercover officer claimed the NYPD harassed the dead man's mourners Wednesday night outside the Brooklyn stoop where he was gunned down.
Lawyers for his family also said Thursday that an eyewitness to the July 11th confrontation that left Shem Walker dead has emerged and will cooperate with the Brooklyn District attorney's investigation into the fatal shooting.
Law enforcement sources said that security video from a nearby bodega has been turned over to authorities and is being examined to see if it captured the fatal shooting.
Walker, 49, an Army veteran, had fought with the undercover and ordered him off his mother's stoop in Clinton Hill apparently not realizing he had been scuffling with a police officer.
City Councilwoman Leticia James and Kirsten John Foy of the National Action Network said they rushed to the Walker family's home Wednesday night when police officers allegedly got into a shoving match with mourners. They said police had been overly aggressive in demanding to see identificaton from a mourner, believing he resembled a robbery suspect.
"You need to demand that NYPD cease and desist in engaging in harassment against this family and those who mourn Shem Walker," James said.
A police spokesman countered by saying this man had not been with the mourners when approached but was several doors down from the Walker home. The spokesman claimed the mourners interfered with the questioning.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has set up a special hotline 718 250-2759 for anyone with information on the shooting.
