No criminal charges will be filed in the police shooting death of a man in the Bronx last year, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced Wednesday.
Kawasaki Trawick was killed last April after officers responded to a harassment call. He was 32 years old.
Police said Trawick was moving towards them with a knife and a broom handle. They also said both officers used their tasers, but that they did not stop him.
Clark said there is a need to review training and procedures and provide more assistance to those in supportive housing.
Advocates had demanded accountability in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. They had said Trawick was known to be emotionally unstable and shouldn't have been confronted by police.
In a statement, Trawick's mother, Ellen, said she was "outraged" that no charges were being filed.
"After meeting with DA Clark’s staff, viewing surveillance and body camera footage, and listening to 911 calls, it is 100% clear to me and my family that Kawaski should be alive today," she said. "The officers who killed my son escalated the situation every step of the way by opening the door to his home while he was cooking, then yelling commands at him while he was nowhere near them, then tasing him while he posed no threat, and then shooting him. They rendered no aid and let him die on the floor."
"My family deserves to be treated better than this, but most of all, my son deserved better," the statement goes on to say. "Kawaski always stood for what he believed was right. It is not right that he was living at Hill House to get support but they called the police on him, when they could have helped him get back into his apartment when he needed to. It’s not right that the NYPD showed up, entered his home while he was not a threat to anyone, barked orders at him, tased him, and gunned him down. If Kawaski were with us today, I know he would be demanding accountability and change so that what happened to him doesn't happen to others."
Ellen Trawick's statement ends with her saying she and her family will be demanding that the two officers involved in the incident be fired by the NYPD.
A formal report detailing the investigation will be released in the coming weeks.