The family of the man who was struck and killed by an NYPD van in Brooklyn last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department and called on the officers involved to be fired, according to court papers.
The lawsuit alleges that the driver of the van, Officer Orkhan Mamedov, abused his emergency privileges and drove recklessly without justification, causing the death of 53-year-old Ronald Anthony Smith, while his partner Officer Evan Siegel sat in the passenger seat. The lawsuit also claims the officers failed to administer CPR or first aid after the collision, and that Smith died as a result of their negligence.
“Anthony had a heart full of love and a joke on his lips,” said Lillian Goode, one of Smith’s sisters. “This is what Officers Mamedov and Siegel took from us when they smashed into my brother for no reason and then didn’t even have the decency to try to save Ronald Anthony’s life. We need Mayor [Eric] Adams to stop ignoring the murder of my brother by firing Mamedov and Siegel immediately, they are dangerous and should have been fired a year ago.”
A spokesperson for the NYPD said the department would review the lawsuit if and when it is served. A request to the Police Benevolent Association, which represents both officers, was not immediately returned.
According to a 128-page report by the New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation released in May, officers Mamedov and Siegel were driving four people in Crown Heights from the 73rd Precinct to Brooklyn Central Booking in a police van on a rainy April 7, 2022.
Mamedov was speeding with his emergency lights on and drove through two red traffic signals, the report said. He then swerved into a left turn lane and kept driving straight as the lane turned into a painted median strip on the next block. That was when he hit Smith, who was standing in the center of the parkway, according to the report.
Prosecutors concluded that they lacked sufficient evidence to prove in…
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