On Sept. 22, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) confirmed they will begin an investigation into the killing of Antonio Williams. Meanwhile, Williams’ family and organizers are calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD to fire all the officers responsible for killing Williams and for the CCRB to carry out the investigation expeditiously.
On Sept. 29, 2019, Williams was waiting for a taxi on the street when plainclothes officers in an unmarked vehicle jumped out of their car and began to chase him without cause. NYPD officers escalated their unconstitutional stop, tackled and beat Williams, recklessly opening fire, killing both Williams and NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen in a hail of 15 bullets – some shot from more than 50 feet away.
De Blasio and the NYPD have obstructed transparency and accountability for Williams’ family at every step, refusing to release the names of officers responsible for months, and providing no update to the family about whether or not there has been any investigation or discipline of officers.
“Next week will mark two years since our son was racially profiled and murdered while waiting for a cab. He was unconstitutionally stopped by a violent NYPD plainclothes unit, chased, beaten, and killed. Nobody has been held accountable since,” said Shawn Williams, father of Antonio Williams and Gladys Williams, Antonio Williams’ stepmother. “Our family’s suffering has been unbearable for the past two years. The Bronx DA Darcel Clark, Mayor de Blasio, and the NYPD have made it worse by trying to wash their hands of Antonio’s killing and keep our family in the dark. It’s good the CCRB opened an investigation, but it shouldn’t have taken this long and we shouldn’t have to jump through all these hoops for basic information about what happened when Antonio was killed. We’re demanding that Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD fire Sgt. Jason Valentino, Det. Daniel Beddows, and Officers Brian Mahon, Keith Figueroa and Robert Wichers, and all the other officers who engaged in misconduct, and we are urging the CCRB to move as quickly as possible to complete their investigation.”
After the Williams family demanded they be able to view an NYPD-produced video before it was publicly released, the NYPD promised the Williams family they would delay public release so that all interested members of the Williams family could view footage.
In November of 2020, the family of Williams sued the city of New York and the NYPD following the release of security footage that supports the family’s statements that the NYPD engaged in an unconstitutional stop, unnecessarily escalated the interaction, and recklessly killed Williams and a fellow officer. It’s been more than a year and a half and de Blasio and the NYPD have not provided full FOIL disclosures related to the killing.
