Delrawn Small's family demands justice in killing by off-duty cop

Brut America

"He should have pulled out his badge, instead he pulled out his gun."   They were both Black men – one a civilian, the other an off-duty NYPD officer. Only one left their traffic dispute alive...

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00:00One time, my son was in the backseat, my oldest son, and that was the first time, and I begged

00:07the officers not to kill me, and not to kill my son.

00:13That was the first time that I called Daron's death a murder, or say he was killed.

00:36Prior to that, I was putting nicer words on it, and I was saying things like, something

00:47happened to him, or the incident.

00:50They killed my brother who raised me.

00:52They killed my brother who, even when my mom was alive, helped to raise me.

01:06This is where we usually have the memorial, because it's actually right there.

01:24Daron was driving down Atlantic Avenue from way down there, when Isaacs was also driving

01:33from down Atlantic Avenue, so he was in his plain clothes, and he was in his personal

01:39vehicle.

01:40When Isaacs lowered his window and shot Daron, as Daron exited the vehicle, it happened like

01:53almost instantly.

01:54The thing is, when Isaacs should have pulled out his badge, instead he pulled out his gun.

02:03He called 9-1-1 and told them that he was assaulted.

02:08He never mentioned that he had shot a civilian who was bleeding out in between two cars.

02:15He didn't render any first aid.

02:18He didn't do anything.

02:29I'm afraid to drive.

02:32I'm afraid to be pulled over.

02:34The two times that I was pulled over, I begged for my life.

02:42If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say that you enjoyed it.

02:48All of us would rather be here for other reasons, more positive reasons.

02:53We would rather not be here speaking about our loved ones who were killed at the hands

02:59of police.

03:19In most of these cases, what they come down to is how much the jury, through the reasonable

03:25person standard, sympathizes with the defendant or sympathizes with the victim.

03:31Self-defense cases are cases in which ordinary societal biases, stereotypes, and prejudices

03:38can simply filter their way right through the jury box and into the ultimate decision

03:44of whether the defendant acted reasonably or not.

03:58The problem is that black victims are low-balled or not shown sufficient care and concern by

04:05juries.

04:07The interest of black victims are given short shrift in self-defense cases, especially when

04:15those interests of those black victims are weighed against the interests of somebody

04:20in a blue uniform, or even as in this case, they weren't in the blue uniform at the time

04:25of the shooting, but they had that job description.

04:30They were still portrayed as police officers at the trial, and that kind of put them in

04:36that police officer halo.

05:06After trial, he went back to his comforts.

05:13He went back to his pension, his back pay, you know, just all of his comforts while my

05:22family was left to pick up the pieces.

05:25Almost a year after the trial, I had given birth to my son, Justice, and so I have my

05:34literal Justice, right?

05:36So I'm just holding these systems accountable so they can hold officers like Wayne Isaacs

05:43accountable.

05:44It doesn't make sense that taxpayers are paying his salary as a public servant when he served

05:51no one but himself.

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