First responders testify in case of NYPD cop charged with road rage murder

June 14, 2017 By Ahmed Jallow Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The officers and EMTs who responded to the road rage incident that left Delrawn Small dead testified in the trial of NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court on Tuesday. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

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First responders testified at Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday in the pretrial hearing of the NYPD officer who has been accused of killing a man in a fit of road rage while off duty.

Officer Wayne Isaacs is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing Delrawn Small, 37, during a road rage incident on July 4 of last year. Isaacs was off duty during the incident.

Isaacs was dressed in black suit with khaki pants and sat stoically in the courtroom as three witnesses took to the stand. The witnesses — two officers and an EMT — who responded to the shooting that night, all testified that officer Isaacs said he was struck in the face and had pain in his lip and jaw.

“I gave him an ice pack for his right jaw, saw swelling right away,” said Ebony McBride, an EMT who testified.

The officer was driving home after finishing his shift that night when he got into a traffic dispute with Small at a red light on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Bradford Street, according to officials.

According to police reports of the incident, Small, whose girlfriend and two children were in the car, approached Isaacs’ car and punched him through an open window. Isaacs then shot Small three times — in the arm, chest and abdomen — according to the medical examiner. Camera footage of the incident showed Small recoiling from the gunfire.

Small’s family is hoping that the camera footage of the incident is able to prove that Small didn’t punch Isaacs before he was fatally shot. Outside the courtroom, Small’s wife Wenona and family lawyer Sanford Rubenstein were optimistic.

“I believe justice will be done,” said the victim’s wife. “Mr. Isaacs will pay for his actions.”

Tuesday’s hearing also gave Judge Alexander Jeong a chance to determine whether statements Isaac made immediately after the shooting can be used as evidence at trial.

Isaacs, who has worked with NYPD since January 2013 and was assigned to the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, is the first police officer in New York state to be prosecuted by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman since he was given the power to investigate killings involving police shooting by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Isaacs is scheduled to appear in front of Jeong again on Sept. 13.