(Third) Avoidable car accident

Outcome

Reprimand

According to court documents, RPD officer DiVincenzo used profane language against and then physically slapped an individual while he was handcuffed and being identified at the Police Records counter. The incident was reported by a civilian employee on 01-11-2001.

Outcome

John DiVincenzo pleaded guilty to inappropriate use of force and failing to properly report the event. The officer was sentenced to 5 days suspension without pay and remedial training.

RPD Officer (now Lieutenant) David Gebhardt shot and killed an unarmed Jamaican father of three young children as he was sitting on a couch. According to D&C, "Gebhardt said he tripped or stumbled and his shotgun accidentally discharged".

Outcome

Gebhardt was cleared of all wrongdoing by the Civilian Review Board.

Use of improper tactics according to City of Rochester RPD Misconduct database.

Outcome

suspension

According to the City of Rochester RPD Misconduct database, Officer Elwood used force while taking person into custody, failed to report the incident.

Outcome

suspended

avoidable fleet vehicle accident (3rd incident of avoidable fleet vehicle accident

Outcome

Reprimand

According to the city misconduct database, Costello was involved in a fender bender: he backed into a garbage can, and it was avoidable.

Outcome

reprimanded because violated Rules and Reg Section 4.18 Departmental Property and Equipment

According to a complaint associated with city's disciplinary record, victim was allegedly cap-stunned, and punched and kicked while handcuffed on the ground

In a car chase, Hill allegedly pursued a civilian and shot the civilian in the shoulder.

Outcome

The civilian was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison and released in 2015

Accoriding to the City RPD misconduct database, officer fabricated information regarding a warrant and asked victim to lift her shirt to see if she had a tattoo like the person who was supposedly in the database with a warrant that matched the victims description. He also made several inappropriate comments and drove her home in his vehicle.

Outcome

Letter of reprimand on file after investigation

Individual filed complaint that after being chased by police, he was hit, kicked, and punched by officers including officers Mario Correia, Yodice, and Sofia. CRB and RPD sustained complaint that Correia struck the individual in the head with flashlight and lied about it.

Outcome

Other officers testified that Correia hit individual with the flashlight, Correia denied it. Disciplinary letter states his untruthfulness and violation of procedure could have resulted in termination but he's being given "a second chance", and 60 days unpaid leave. Correia appealed and lost.

According to the City RPD misconduct database, Officer Correia pulled out personal firearm while off duty and threatened an individual with it after he thought the individual had pulled the hair of another female. He continued to wave the firearm around and make claims that the individual was all done now and he could end him now.

Outcome

5 day suspension without pay, report filed with professional standards section

Derold Jamison, an 18 year old high school student, was sitting in a friend's car on Fougeron Street when a car with three white Buffalo Police Officers in plain clothes pulled up next to him. They shined a flashlight in the car and told him to put his hands where they could see them.

The officers told Jamison to get out of the vehicle. He was searched, asked what he was doiing there, handcuffed and told to "get down on my knees." Once on his knees, he was hit on the side of his face with a flashlight.

At that point, Jamison's friend came out of the alley, saw what was happening to his friend, and took off running with two officers in pursuit, leaving one officer with Jamison.

The officer that stayed behind put Jamison in the back seat of his friend's car, and the officer got in the front seat behind the wheel. Jamison informed the officer that the back door that he was sitting next to was still open. The officer ignored him. The officer then started the car and pulled away from the curb, making a sharp left turn causing him, with his hands still handcuffed behind his back, to fall out of the car and onto the street.

As Jamison lay in the street, the officer put the car in reverse and attempted to run him over. Jamison ran out of the way and into a nearby yard. The officer then caught up with him and began to beat him again. The officer then pulled his gun out and placed it next to Jamison's head and said, "I would blow your brains out but it's too close to Christmas." With the gun still next to Jamison's head, the officer fired a shot into the ground, and then continued beating him again with his flashlight.

When the sound of the shooting started to draw attention, the officer brought Jamison back to the car until another witness noticed. Throughout the assault, the officer referred to Jamison using racial slurs.

Shortly after, the other officers returned and put Jamison in the car where the beating and name calling continued, forcing him to tell them where his friend lived. On arrival at his friend's house the officers had a short conversation with the friend and released him in his mother's presence. At this point Jamison was also released, and the officer who had assaulted him wiped the blood from his face and said, "Merry Christmas."

All three officers then drove away.

After notifying his father, Derold Jamison. Sr, they went to police headquarters and reported the incident to Internal Affairs. According to Mr. Jamison, Sr.. members of Internal Affairs later identified the officers as detectives Thomas McDonald, Gerald Skinner and Mark Lauber of the Streets Crime Unit.

October 7th, 1992 Buffalo Police Officer Richard C Lopez approached the vehicle of Gregory Johnson, a 23 year old Black man, with his gun drawn. Lopez discharged his gun into Johnson's skull. Johnson died a short time later.

Outcome

The police claimed the lynching was accidental, and on April 7 1993 a grand jury cleared Lopez.

Shortly after 10 PM on the night of December 5th, 1991 Detective Mark Lauber of the Buffalo Police Department shot Paul Mills, a 19 year old Black student of Erie County Community College, as he ran away from the detective. Paul was the second youngest of Bobby and Ann Mills' four children.

Mills was shot by the detective while he was in plain clothes with the departments destructive 9-millimeter gun under the left arm. The bullet traveled downward, damaging his lungs, liver and spleen before exiting his right side just above the hip. Based on the entrance of the bullet, it's reasonable to assume Mills had his left arm up when he was shot.

According to police account, Mills apparently pulled a gun on the detective prior to fleeing. Mills proceeds to run through a yard on Cambridge Ave and collapsed in the front yard of a residence on Cornwall Ave. A search of the area that night, by police, failed to turn up any weapon. However, police claim that approximately 24 later, a gun was found on the roof of a shed in the rear of the Cambridge Ave yard. The Buffalo Police Commissioner did not say if fingerprints were found on the gun.

A Buffalo resident said that Mills laid on Cornwall after collapsing for nearly 20 minutes before he was picked up by an ambulance and transported to Erie County Medical Center. The witness said, "He lost a lot of blood, you could see it now if not for the snow."

An unnamed police officer said that, "Lauber is one of the good Irish Catholic boys from South Buffalo, and Dillon(the DA at the time) is not going to hurt him."

Thomas Grillo, a retired Buffalo police officer, was arrested for attacking a man with a tire iron and threatening to shoot him with a loaded revolver during an apparent traffic dispute. Grillo was accused of smashing the window of the driver's car with a tire iron and hitting the driver. He was also accused of pointing a loaded .38-caliber revolver at the driver's head.

Outcome

Grillo was charged with assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, possession of a weapon and criminal mischief.

Terrance Robinson, an off-duty Buffalo Police Officer, went to assist another off-duty officer who was working as a restaurant security guard around 3:00 AM on October 22nd, 1989. The officers restrained Anthony Williams, 20, with handcuffs and then Officer Robinson pulled his gun out and placed it against Williams' head. Officer Robinson threatened to blow Williams brains out if he moved while Williams was in handcuffs. There is some dispute whether Williams yelled or moved his head, but after he did, Officer Robinson's gun went off, shooting Williams in the head.

The shooting occurred about four hours after Robinson told police superiors he was too sick to work his normal shift.

Williams, shot once in the right temple, died three days later.

Outcome

A grand jury was assigned to investigate the fatal shooting.

Buffalo Police Officer Terrence Robinson was arrested following his indictment on a second-degree manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of Anthony Williams. The indictment also charged Robinson with prohibited use of a firearm in the death of Williams. Robinson was allowed to remain free on his own recognizance after he pleaded innocent. Assigned to administrative duties since the shooting, Robinson was suspended without pay and later formerly fired from the department after his conviction.

State Supreme Court Justice Julian F. Kubiniec told the police officer he was "responsible for the consequences" of drawing his weapon. Kubiniec imposed the maximum-permitted term on Robinson of 5 to 15 years.

"There was no reason ever for you to pull that weapon out," Kubiniec said in rebuking the five-year police officer for drawing one of his two service revolvers.

Buffalo Police Officer Cedric Holloway responded to a 911 call from Darlene Brantley arising from a dispute she had with her ex-boyfriend, during the morning hours of September 2, 1989. Holloway claimed he saw Brantley with a knife and responded by shooting and killing Brantley, a Black 31 year old mother of a 9-year-old boy. Officer Holloway shot Brantley through the open window of his police vehicle.

Brantley was the first Black woman ever killed by an on-duty Black officer in the Buffalo Police Department. She was also the first person to be killed by the department's new automatic weapon, the 9-millimeter. The bullet from the gun tore through her abdominal organs, damaging her liver, lungs and spleen before exiting her left side. For eleven months she struggled to live as a patient at ECMC's intensive care unit. She died on July 23, 1990.

According to city of Rochester court proceedings for P.S.S. Case 86-1207, Gary Galetta responded as a plainclothes officer to a burglary report along with three uniformed officer. The victim was apprehended as a suspect by the four officers, and Galetta kicked the victim in the side and head while they were on the ground.

Outcome

RPD suspended Gary Galetta without pay for 20 days. This suspension was satisfied with time from the Gary Galetta's compensatory time bank.

On August 7, 1981, the gay rights activist Bob Uplinger was arrested on the corner of North Street and Irving Place in Buffalo for inviting an undercover police officer back to his apartment. Convinced his arrest was unjust, Uplinger fought the state loitering laws that enabled police to entrap gay men and criminalize their sexuality.

The result: a historical verdict in the New York State Court of Appeals, and one of the first gay rights cases to ever appear before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Source: Buffalo-Niagara LGBTQ History Project