Ronald Anthony Smith was an animal lover, a volunteer, a brother and an uncle, his sister Julie Floyd said Monday afternoon in Manhattan.
Next to her, Smith’s brother Richard held a photograph of the loved one they called Anthony, at home with a terrier in his lap: “He leaves behind… People who loved him, and we’re still mourning him to this day,” Julie Floyd said.
On April 7, Brooklyn officers Orkhan Mamedov and Evan Siegel were reportedly transporting people in a New York Police Department van when they struck and killed Smith on Eastern Parkway near Schenectady Avenue in Crown Heights.
Smith’s family, along with representatives from the Justice Committee and the family’s attorney David Rankin, has reviewed the video of the incident privately.
They say it shows the van speeding “carelessly” down the median where Smith was standing before striking him and carrying his body 35 feet on top of the van.
Now they want the video — including street camera footage — to be released to the public and for the officers involved to be fired. Rankin’s law firm is suing the NYPD for the video after an initial Freedom of Information request went unheeded.
The Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation and the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent police oversight agency, are actively investigating the incident. According to its complaint records, the review board has substantiated six allegations made against Mamedov in the past.
“It’s been seven months. What’s the holdup?” said Lloyda Colon of the Justice Committee.
“The family has been asking Deputy Mayor [of Public Safety Philip] Banks to give them an update on the investigation, to tell them what the status of these officers is right now, and they have not received any information.”
The NYPD has been mum. But it confirmed with Streetsblog that the driver is on “modified duty.” A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said the investigation is ongoing. The CCRB did not respond to requests for comment on the case.
In the meantime, the Smith family continues to grieve as they call for accountability and wait for answers.
“I want something done,” said Floyd.
“They swept it under the rug so quickly that nobody even hardly knew about it. I saw it on the news the next morning — it was about 10 seconds. Do you know how shocking that is to wake up and see that, knowing that’s your brother?”
