Metro

Cops who shot unarmed drug suspect have been placed on restricted duty: NYPD commissioner

Two cops involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed teen drug suspect in the Bronx have been put on restricted duty, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said today.

Investigators do not believe officers struggled with the suspect, Ramarley Graham, before he was shot, Kelly told reporters.

In their initial account of the shooting, police said Graham, 18, had struggled with cops.

No weapon was found at the scene. In initial accounts of the shooting, cops said Graham appeared to the officers to have had a weapon.

“We need to continue to gather facts at this juncture,” Kelly said. “We see an unarmed person being shot. That always concerns us.”

The incident began around 3 p.m. Thursday when a six-officer street narcotics team observed Graham and two cohorts make a drug deal at a bodega on East 228th Street.

Some members of the team radioed that they believed Graham was carrying a gun – and later radioed that they saw the butt of a gun in his waistband, Kelly said.

Graham ran with the others into a building at 728 East 229th Street. Then, when he came out, a witness said she heard two cops say “Stop! Police!”

Graham then ran into 749 East 229th St., where he lived with his family in a second floor apartment.

As three of the cops burst into that apartment, they saw Graham run from a bedroom to a bathroom.

According to Kelly’s account, as Graham tried to flush drugs down the toilet, one of the officers yelled: “Police! Don’t move. Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Gun! Gun!”

That officer then fired at Graham with his service weapon, a 9mm Glock. The bullet struck Graham below his left clavicle. He was later declared dead at Montefiore Hospital.