NY Attorney General to Investigate Deadly Road-Rage Shooting

The state’s attorney general office is investigating an off-duty NYPD officer’s fatal shooting of a man who apparently attacked him during a case of road rage early Monday.

Officer Wayne Isaacs, 37, was driving his personal vehicle in East New York shortly after midnight when he was involved in a traffic dispute with Delrawn Small, also 37. When they both stopped at a red light, Small got out of his vehicle and punched the officer repeatedly in the head through an open window, according to police. Isaacs, who had just finished his shift and was on his way home, pulled out his service weapon and killed Small.

Small, who may have been drinking before the incident, had a long arrest history. The officer was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

Small’s family held a news conference later Monday demanding a full investigation.

Eric Soufer, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Scheniderman, said prosecutors had obtained a search warrant for the officer’s car and were “actively reviewing the case.” The attorney general is authorized to investigate police shootings when either the person killed is unarmed or there are questions about the threat they posed.

The police department was also investigating, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. Investigators gathered surveillance video and interviewed the officer, Bratton said.

But Bratton, citing the ongoing investigations, warned that it was too early to say whether the officer was justified in his actions and said police are still trying to determine what sparked the traffic dispute.

This article appeared in print on page 28 of the July 6th, 2016 edition of Hamodia.