Twenty-three-year-old Shantel Davis was shot and killed by a plainclothes NYPD detective in Brooklyn on Thursday evening as she tried to escape the scene of an accident. According to police narcotics detectives Phil Atkins, 44 and his partner, Daniel Guida, 27, spotted Davis making an illegal u-turn and running three red lights before crashing head-on into a minivan. She attempted to escape on the passenger side, hitting Guida with the door. She then moved back to the drivers seat and put the car in reverse as Atkins approached from that side.
“He has his gun in one hand. He’s trying to reach the shift to move into park, and he’s halfway in and halfway out of the car as it’s moving backward,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne explained. “The weapon discharges one time.”
Davis was hit in the chest and later died at Kings County Hospital
According to state assemblyman Nick Perry calls the shooting questionable, stating “I am seriously concerned that the police may have not acted with good judgment,”
NYPD is investigating whether or not the shot was fired accidentally. The New York Post reports that Davis “made a grab” for the gun.
Both Atkins and Davis background are coming into play as the story unfolds.
Atkins had never fired his weapon while on duty, cops said, but court papers show he has been the defendant in six federal lawsuits. But that is in 12 year a career that boasts over 800 arrests.
“It’s unfair to measure a narcotic detective’s performance by the lawsuits that are filed against him,” said Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association. “Drug dealers are interested in one thing: making money, either by selling drugs or filing lawsuits.”
Davis was driving a car allegedly stolen in an armed carjacking on June 5, and she was due in court Friday (June 15) on charges of attempted murder, burglary, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon stemming from an April 2011 incident.
Friend and neighbour Kelvia Joseph said she was trying to get her life together.
“She was sweet. She did her stuff on the side, but she was a good person.”
Via [NY Post, NY Daily News & Jamaica Gleaner]
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