Is NYPD lying about Rameek Smith's death?

UPDATE: @kmele slowed down the footage and it does appear that Smith turned and fired a shot. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t show whether a) Vargas identified himself as police b) Why they claim he shot twice c) Why they were chasing him d) why they shot him 11 times and how Vargas got a clear shot to the back of the head.

Last week, the NYPD released officer body cam footage of the fatal shooting of Rameek Smith on May 10th.

According to initial police reports, Officer Dennis Vargas approached Smith, who took off running. Vargas ran after him. Smith allegedly fired off two shots and Vargas shot back, hitting him in the back of the head. The officer suffered a superficial wound and was released from the hospital that night.

At the time of the fatal shooting, officer Vargas was hailed as a hero; Smith was (of course) vilified as a career criminal stalking the streets because of bail reform.“Let's critique the actions of those who are committing the crimes in this city,” Mayor Eric Adams said. Smith had “an extensive arrest history,” the Mayor intoned. It wasn’t just the New York Post, a reliable NYPD booster, that emphasized Smith’s criminal history. “Suspect in shooting of NYPD officer was repeat offender,” ABC news claimed.  The Police Benevolent Association, of course, joined the pile on. “Repeat offenders let out again & again…Our justice system is broken in many, many places. Police officers and innocent NYers are paying the price,” the Police Benevolent Association tweeted out. 

“Extensive arrest history” is an interesting way to describe Smith’s criminal record. The NYPD claimed he’d been arrested nine times, yet cited only two: an arrest on a robbery charge six years ago. And in March 2020, he was detained after jumping a turnstile in Coney Island. When police searched him, they allegedly found a gun, with non-working bullets in the firearm. At the time, he was in mental health care and substance misuse treatment. 

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“He didn’t start trouble. He might get in trouble but he didn’t start trouble,” a neighbor told the New York Times. Smith’s godmother, Robin Ballard, told the Daily News that he suffered from mental illness, exacerbated when the state took away his child. “He’s bi-polar, schizophrenic and had OCD,” she said. “He lost his mind when they took his daughter.”

But if anyone can be accurately labeled a “repeat offender,” it’s officer Vargas, who has an extensive history of misconduct. On the job for only 8 years, the 32 year-old has 39 CCRB complaints against him. This is a high number—forty percent of NYPD staff have zero.  He’s been accused of physical force, illegal stops, and was once censured by the department for lying to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) the watchdog that investigates claims of abuse by NYPD officers.

The entire incident is wildly suspicious. First, it’s against protocol to just jump out of an unmarked cop car and start chasing someone unless they present a clear and immediate danger. I spoke with a recently retired arms instructor who said that it’s not clear to him why they’d been chasing Smith. By all accounts, he noted, Smith didn’t appear to be breaking the law. “Why were they stopping him? He didn’t do anything wrong. There was no justification to chase him down like that.” 

Another retired former police officer, who taught firearm and shooting skills to cops, finds it strange that Vargas was able to get a clear shot to the back of Smith’s head, especially since both men were running. “If he was shooting back of the head, that's crazy. Most people don't have the ability to do that. It’s like shooting a gun out of someone’s hand, it’s movie stuff,” he told me. “Doesn’t work in real life.” 

Well, with zero fanfare, on the Friday before labor day, the NYPD released body cam footage from the incident and it answers nothing.

“Shots fired, shots fired!” the officer yells, after he himself has discharged 11 bullets in Smith’s direction. “Fuck. On Claremont!”

Take a look:

Link here if it doesn’t work.

First off, the audio has been edited out (lol) up until shots are fired. So we have no idea what the officers were talking about when they rolled up to Smith. This information would be pretty useful in determining what prompted Vargas to jump out of an unmarked police car and give chase.

Audio would also be helpful in determining if Vargas identified himself as an officer. The cop car was unmarked. What if Smith ran because he thought he was being jumped by a stranger, not being stopped by cops? This was actually a common, recurring problem when the plainclothes unit was active (it was disbanded under Bill de Blasio and then relaunched by Adams with slightly more visible police insignia). In case after case, people “resisted” because they thought they were being attacked by random thugs.

In the video, all you see is Smith running. Because of how the blurry video has been edited, you get sound only when the fatal encounter occurs. Maybe Smith shot first, maybe he didn’t shoot at all. The video raises more questions than it answers.

I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but: The officer, allegedly wounded, doesn’t skip a beat before firing off 11 shots. Even in the fantasy cop porn of the Law and Order franchise, when someone shoots at an officer, wounding them in the arm, they at least go “Ow!” and duck for a beat.

The body cams of both officers get cut off before we can see Smith’s body.

The NYPD dumped the video on a holiday weekend with zero fanfare from Eric Adams or the tabloids. Contrast that to the release of another body cam video last week. After passersby filmed a giant cop smacking a tiny, 19-year-old girl so hard she drops to the ground, Adams defended the officer and released body cam footage—early—that allegedly shows the cop was justified.

If body cam video, and forensic evidence, in Smith’s case, confirmed the officers’ story, Adams and the tabloids would be blasting it out. “Watch hero cop take down thug who shot him in the arm!!!” Instead, crickets.

I hope sleazy politicking doesn’t influence the AG’s investigation of the case. Results are due in November. Smith has family, including two young kids, who deserve justice for their father.