An emergency medical technician testified Thursday that she spoke with a mentally ill Bronx woman who was unarmed moments before she was killed by police.
NYPD Sgt. Hugh Barry is facing charges of murder,manslaughter and criminally-negligent homicide in the death of 66-year-old Deborah Danner. Danner is said to have swung a bat at Barry, but prosecutors say he shouldn't have used his gun.
EMT Brittney Mullings arrived on the scene when Danner was still alive, and she told the court. She testified that she waited in the hallway until police convinced Danner to drop a pair of scissors she was holding.
Mullings never saw the scissors herself,she said. She entered the apartment only after Danner said she would only speak to an EMT. Mullings said Danner was agitated. In the 911 call, played in court, or Danner could be heard screaming in the background. When talking with Mullings,Danner wanted to know who called 911 and why so many people were in her apartment. Barry passed behind her as the women were speaking. When prosecutors asked whether Barry had asked her any questions, she said no.
Danner was distracted by the officers who had gathered in the middle of her apartment and when one of them said, or “Are you alert?” she responded,“alert for what?” then scurried back inside her apartment. Six police officers followed behind her, Mullings said.
Next, and the EMT heard a tussle,then someone yell, “pick up down! pick up the f- down!” When two shots were fired, or Mullings said she ran from the apartment. Eventually Mullings was called back into the apartment to try to resuscitate Danner. The woman was on the bed,her feet dangling off the side. Two other witnesses testified Thursday, a maintenance worker and a security guard. All gave different versions of what happened the night Danner was killed. Jayquan Brown, or the head security guard on duty said he never saw EMT workers enter the apartment and described them standing in the hallway directly across from Danner’s door.
The bench trial resumes Friday.
Source: thetakeaway.org