Recommended Reading, September 22, 2024

Robert Cox

23 Sep 2024 — 4 min read

Jarrel Garris crossing Lincoln Avenue, high on PCP, on July 3, 2023 on BWC. NRPD vehicle across the street, New Rochelle Farms in the background.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (September 22, 2024) — This week we finally got the long-awaited report from New York State Attorney General Leticia James, prepared by the OAG Investigations Division, on the Death of Jarrel Garris. The report leaves a lot to be desired but did rightly clear the New Rochelle Police officers involved. They will not be prosecuted.

You can read the findings here: Report on the Investigation into the Death of Jarrel Garris.

That said, there is so much wrong with the report that it serves to fuel an unsupported, false narrative from the family’s lawyer that Garris was shot because he ate fruit at a grocery store. This is unfortunate because the truth is sad enough — a family struggled for years to deal with a schizophrenic child who would go off his meds and become violent against himself and others. One can only imagine incidents the family did not report when they were subject to outbursts and violence by Garris.

Garris was not the victim that day.

The victims are the woman whose apartment he entered without permission, the family who were minding their own business when he attempted to burn down their home with them in it, the store staff and store owner who were menaced by Garris as he robbed a grocery store, and the three officers who Garris attacked in the street.

Garris had a well-established history of violent, erratic, PCP-fueled behavior, including arson and violence against police officers, going back years. It was that history which played out on July 3, 2023: he obtained then ingested PCP, wandered into a woman’s apartment, committed arson, shoplifted at a store, then violently attacked police officers. All crimes he had committed in the past and all of which he committed in the hour leading up to the shooting.

The comparison to the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd in the report is absurd, a disgraceful and transparently political attempt by James to deflect criticism for not prosecuting the officers. In neither of those cases did Garner or Floyd grab a police officers firearm nor were either of them shot by a police officer as a result.

The more appropriate comparison is to Michael Brown. I will have more on that later.

I had previously sought records related to the case, but those requests were denied because there was a pending investigation. With the OAG investigation now over, I have made a FOIL request to the OAG (all records used to prepare the report). I also made a request to NRPD (all police records involving Garris from that day, all police records involving Garris and Det. Conn) but they may withhold them on the grounds they are now conducting an internal investigation.

The OAG released the CCTV video from inside New Rochelle Farms, which I compiled here:

SEE: A detailed review of government records suggests Jarrell R. Garris was having a PCP-induced psychotic episode on the afternoon of July 3rd.

Last October, in the article above, I wrote that I “fully expect the Office of Attorney General will ultimately release a toxicology report that will indicate the presence of Phencyclidine (or phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, PCP) in Jerrell Garris’ system that day.”

The OAG report issued on September 18, 2024, states: “The toxicology report showed the presence of PCP and marijuana metabolites.”

Not explained in the report is when the blood draw was taken (the day he was shot, the day he was declared brain-dead, the day he was pronounced dead) and the levels of PCP and marijuana metabolites.

These and other defects in the report are the subject of my inquiries to the OAG and NRPD.

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