No Indictment in NYPD Death

A grand jury declined to indict a veteran police officer on Tuesday in the shooting death of an unarmed high school student who was using the rooftop of a Brooklyn housing development as a shortcut to return to a party in another building.

Timothy Stansbury Jr., 19, was killed last month by a single bullet fired into his chest by Richard Neri, an 11-year veteran of the New York Police Department, who confronted the young man in a stairwell atop the Louis Armstrong Houses.

Neri testified before the grand jury that he fired accidentally after being startled by Stansbury and two companions who inadvertently were engaging in a tug of war with police on opposite sides of a staircase door when it burst open.

After the shooting, which happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said it apparently was unjustified. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn. responded that Kelly had engaged in a rush to judgment.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg backed Kelly after the police group called for the commissioner’s resignation.

“Today, the grand jury concluded its inquiry,” Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said in a statement. “ ... The grand jury did not find police officer Neri criminally responsible for the death of Timothy Stansbury.”

Hynes said the grand jurors heard testimony from witnesses who were with Stansbury, from Neri and his partner, Officer Jason Hallik, and from forensic experts, including a deputy medical examiner.

The district attorney described the death of Stansbury, who was black, as “tragic.” Both officers involved in the incident are white.

In advising Neri, 35, to appear before the grand jury, his lawyer, Stuart London, said that only the police officer could express his state of mind when the shooting happened. After the jurors decided not to indict, London said that Neri was gratified and, like Hynes, labeled it a tragedy

Both officers had their guns drawn -- a common practice when police are on what they term vertical patrol, climbing the stairs to the roof in housing projects where crime can be common.

Since Stansbury’s death, police have been examining possible changes in tactics, and whether Neri was justified in using deadly force under the department’s rules and procedures.

Bloomberg also issued a statement Tuesday. “Although the death of Timothy Stansbury was a heartbreaking tragedy, a grand jury today decided that officer Neri’s actions were not criminal,” the mayor said in the statement. “The Police Department will conduct a review of the case to determine the appropriate course of action.”

Stansbury’s family could ask the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn to consider civil rights charges against Neri as a result of the death.