Darius Kennedy, seen in this photo taken last year. His family claims cops could have fired a warning shot before they ended his knife rampage in Times Square with deadly force. (COPY BY VICTOR ALCORN)
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly today defended the two officers who fatally shot a knife-wielding madman on a crowded Midtown Street even as the victim’s family lashed out at cops for using excessive force.
“You can second guess all of these things.Under the circumstances what the officers did was appropriate to the situation,” Kelly said.
But Kathy Johnson, 39, a cousin of victim Darrius Kennedy, 51, wasn’t satisified with that explanation.
“We don’t really know what really happened — but Darius is gone. And I know there were too many bullets. It doesn’t take 15 bullets to kill nobody. I think they could have given him a warning shot, probably a shot in the leg or the arm, or something like that,” Johnson told the Post.
“ I know they’ve got to protect the people but at the same token they took somebody’s life.”
Darius Kennedy was struck at least seven times about 3 p.m. Saturday, Browne said, including three times in the chest, twice in the left arm, once in the groin and once in the left calf. The Medical Examiner will make a final determination, as some of the wounds may have been exit wounds, Browne said.
One officer, a 40-year-old with 18 years on the job, fired three times while his partner, 30 and a seven-year-veteran, fired nine times at point blank range as onlookers gaped and ran for cover.
Neither of the cops, assigned to the Midtown South precinct, had ever fired their weapons on duty, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
None of the more than 20 cops who pursued Kennedy down Seventh Avenue from where he was spotted smoking a joint were armed with tasers, he said.
And Kennedy shook off a blast of pepper spray to the face that may have been diluted in Saturday afternoon’s stiff breezes, Browne said.
Only patrol sergeants and Emergency Service Unit cops are routinely armed with tasers, he added, and none arrived on the scene during the roughly four minutes it took for the drama to unfold in the Crossroads of the World.
Kennedy, who had no known address but was believed flopping somewhere in Washington Heights, had 11 priors, including busts for pot possession and robbery.
In November 2008, he was arrested after he was found standing in the middle of Broadway at 66th Street yelling at passing cars.
When cops approached, he threatened them with a screwdriver and screamed “I’m going to f- -k you up!” and was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.