POUGHKEEPSIE – Jalil Smith, 33, on trial for the attempted murder of a police officer, took the stand in his own defense on Tuesday. Smith, an alleged fitness trainer and weightlifter, was charged after he stabbed an officer in the neck with a screwdriver in November 2020.
Smith’s attorney, Alex Rosen of the Dutchess County Public Defender’s Office has said Smith was “justified” in stabbing the officer who, along with his partner, had responded to a call for help from the defendant’s mother.
The defense claims that Smith had been victimized previously when a woman he met on social media broke into his apartment and attacked him with a fire extinguisher. After that incident, and another occasion of the woman yelling at him from outside the apartment, made him feel unsafe in his home.
During that call, Smith’s mother told dispatch that her son had been threatening her with a screwdriver. When the officers arrived, the mother escorted them into the Smith Street apartment, announced to her son that the officers were present, and he immediately lunged at City of Poughkeepsie Police Sergeant Edwin Acken and stabbed him, according to the bodycam footage played for the jury.
Smith’s attorney previously told the jury that Smith’s actions were justified because he thought the two people in his apartment wearing dark clothing (police uniforms) and masks (COVID) were there to attack him and he was defending his home. Rosen said Smith was in “survival mode” when he attacked. The defense attorney added that his client made “an honest and reasonable mistake” when he was fighting with the two uniformed officers. “He (Smith) never intended to kill anyone and regrets his actions.”
Sergeant Acken held the rank of police officer at the time of the attack and has since been promoted. His partner at the time of the attack, Officer Devon Zanin, testified last week that she has undergone multiple surgeries to repair the damage caused by…
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