Fishkill cops cleared of wrongdoing in February shooting

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POUGHKEEPSIE – After a lengthy grand jury investigation, three Town of Fishkill police officers were cleared of any wrongdoing during an incident in February in which two people were shot.

The grand jury found that police officers DiPalma, Hurtado and Sgt. Cocozza were justified in their use of deadly physical force in this incident in which 29-year-old Michael Becerril was shot during a struggle with the officers.  Thirty-year-old Chassity Wade was also shot during the incident.

Becerril was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon (firearm) by the New York State Police as a result of the incident.  The full account can be found here.

After four days of witness testimony, the grand jury added a second criminal possession of a weapon charge and found sufficient evidence to charge him with attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer, and menacing a police officer.

The grand jury determined the following to be the facts of the incident:

After responding to a separate call, police found Michael Becerril, with a knife in his hand, stabbing himself in the head area, and Chassity Wade, hanging on his arm, trying to stop him from stabbing himself. Officers immediately started to run up the hill. Officers DiPalma and Hurtado arrived first and immediately grabbed Wade and pulled her away from Becerril.

Officer Hurtado saw Michael Becerril stabbing himself and yelled at him repeatedly to drop the knife and the defendant refused to comply. Officer Hurtado deployed his taser, which had no effect, and Becerril started to run toward Officer Hurtado, who was backing away from him. As Officer Hurtado retreated backward, he fell over Ms. Wade as Becerril charged at him. Becerril also fell but got right back up and charged at  Officer DiPalma who was coming up the hill towards him. Officer DiPalma started to retreat and repeatedly commanded Becerril to stop and get on the ground. Becerril refused to comply and continued to charge Officer DiPalma who then discharged his duty weapon, a .45 caliber pistol, striking Becerril but not slowing him down.  

Becerril continued to charge at Officer DiPalma and knocked Officer DiPalma to the ground and began to struggle to take the officer’s .45 caliber pistol from him, in an attempt to cause serious physical injury to him. During the struggle, several more shots were discharged from Officer DiPalmas pistol. Officer Hurtado was able to get up and ran down the hill to where the struggle over Officer DiPalma’s pistol was ongoing. Officer Hurtado fired one shot, but Becerril was able to take DiPalmas pistol and got up with the pistol in hand. 

As the struggle was finishing, with Becerril now armed with the .45 caliber pistol, Sgt. Cocozza came around the top of the hill in his police vehicle and stopped just before Ms. Wade, who was still lying in the road. Officer DiPalma was still on the ground and Officer Hurtado ran to his right to get separation from Becerril who was still armed with the .45 caliber pistol. At this point, Becerril started to head back up the hill toward Chassity Wade and Sgt. Cocozza’s police vehicle. Cocozza exited his vehicle and immediately and repeatedly commanded Becerril to drop the gun. Becerril refused to comply and continued to come toward Sgt. Cocozza on the driver’s side of his police vehicle

Becerril pointed his gun towards the sergeant and Cocozza fired three rounds from his gun, striking Becerril, who fell to the ground by Cocozza’s door and dropped the gun. The suspect got back up, unarmed, and moved toward Sgt. Cocozza, saying “You are going to have to kill me.”  The sergeant backed away and holstered his weapon.  Becerril then collapsed on the ground.  

Both Becerril and Wade were transported to hospitals for medical treatment.

Dutchess County Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Weishaupt personally presented the evidence to the grand jury and 16 witnesses testified before the jurors.  “It has been the policy of this office to present all police-involved shootings to a grand jury to determine if the use of deadly physical force as defined in the Penal Law was justified. This involves members of the community in fact-finding and creates greater transparency and builds trust in the system,” he told Mid-Hudson News.

 

 




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