A Far Rockaway family is looking for answers after police responded to a call about a dispute at their apartment and shot and killed their 26-year-old son earlier this week.
Police said they received an anonymous 911 call at 10:34 a.m. on Monday reporting trouble at the fourth-floor apartment, where Geoffrey Parris, 26, and his brother A.J. Parris, 30, were allegedly having a “dispute.”
Some minutes after arriving, officers entered a bedroom and saw Geoffrey Parris reaching for what turned out to be a fake gun, according to NYPD officials. They shot him several times, and he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
Police and family members said neither Geoffrey nor A.J. Parris had a criminal record or documented history of mental illness, and A.J. Parris has not been charged with a crime. A third brother, Machel Lynch, said he’d never known the two to have a physical fight.
As the state attorney general’s office begins its review of the shooting, the family is still struggling to understand what led to Geoffrey Parris’ killing, including why police were called, why he had a fake gun and why he was taken to a hospital more than 30 minutes away.
Geoffrey Parris is the second person to be shot and killed by police at the Ocean Bay Apartment complex since 2022.
The city’s medical examiner determined Geoffrey Parris’ death was a homicide caused by “gunshot wounds to the torso and lower extremities,” according to spokesperson Julie Bolcer, who added that police shot him four times.
Attorney General Letitia James’ office will investigate the shooting, as required by state law. The NYPD has footage from the officers’ body-worn cameras but declined to release it or let Gothamist view it.
Police said when they first arrived at the apartment, officers spoke to A.J. Parris, who answered the door. They then entered the apartment and knocked on Geoffrey Parris’ bedroom door, according to Tarik Sheppard, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of public information.
Sheppard said…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply