In the early morning hours of January 24, 2004, a single gunshot echoed across the rooftop of a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, forever altering the lives of a family and stirring a city's conscience. Timothy Stansbury Jr., a 19-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by New York Police Department Officer Richard S. Neri Jr. Stansbury, a high school senior who worked part-time at McDonald's, was with two friends, using the roof as a shortcut to get to a party in an adjacent building, a common practice for residents.
Officer Neri and his partner were conducting a routine vertical patrol of the Louis Armstrong Houses rooftop around 1:00 a.m. With his gun drawn, Neri approached a rooftop door. He would later testify that he was startled when Stansbury pushed the door open, causing him to unintentionally discharge his Glock 19 pistol. The single bullet struck the unarmed teenager in the chest. Stansbury stumbled down to the building's lobby and was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.
The shooting immediately drew scrutiny and condemnation. Then-Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly stated that, based on the initial facts, there appeared to be no justification for the shooting. This swift official reaction was unusual compared to previous police-involved shootings. A grand jury was convened to investigate the incident and consider charges of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter against Officer Neri. On February 17, 2004, after a month of investigation, the grand jury declined to indict the officer, ruling the shooting an accident.
In the aftermath, the Stansbury family expressed their profound grief and anger over the lack of criminal charges. In 2006, the NYPD took disciplinary action against Officer Neri, suspending him for 30 days without pay and permanently stripping him of his firearm before reassigning him to a desk job. The following year, the city of New York agreed to a $2 million settlement with Timothy Stansbury Jr.'s family.
