The foster home of a teenager who was blown away by an off-duty detective during an alleged robbery wants to haul NYPD brass to court to learn more details about that deadly shooting.
The nonprofit agency Graham Windham, legal guardian of 17-year-old Antawin White, filed a civil petition yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, demanding more answers about the teen’s death.
White and a 15-year-old friend approached the detective on Jan. 30 last year in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn and tried to rob him, police said.
White allegedly struck the cop in the face with a cane, while his accomplice simulated that he had a gun, officials said. That’s when the detective pulled his weapon and fatally shot White once in the chest, according to police.
Nonprofit Graham Windham said the NYPD has repeatedly ignored Freedom of Information Law requests for information, citing an “ongoing criminal investigation.”
The agency is skeptical of the official NYPD account.
“This portrait of a violent menace did not comport with the Antawin White that Graham Windham knew,” according to the complaint. “And it stood in stark contrast to the Antawin White whom those who grew up with, taught and lived with him knew.”
Cops can produce reports by blacking out names of witnesses, the agency said.
“Graham Windham respectfully requests that this court order the NYPD to produce appropriately redacted documents concerning Antawin White’s death,” according to the complaint.
“In its capacity as legal guardian, and de facto parent, Graham Windham sought information about the shooting by way of FOIL request to the NYPD. It received no information in response to its FOIL request.”
The agency said its staff was devastated by White’s untimely death: “In the early morning hours of January 31, 2012 two Graham Windham employees identified his body at the coroner’s office — a third employee was too overcome with grief to do so.”
A lawyer for the NYPD or city could not be immediately reached for comment this morning.
Additional reporting by David K. Li