The New York Attorney General Letitia James' Office of Special Investigation has publicly released a detailed report concerning the fatality of Mamady Cisse, who died following an interaction with NYPD officers in the Bronx. The report, published on November 18, concludes that no criminal charges will be filed against the responding officers due to the justification of their actions under state law. This conclusion was reached after careful examination of evidence, including body-worn camera footage, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with the officers involved.
On the afternoon of September 9, 2023, NYPD officers were responding to a call from a 7-11 store clerk at 3508 East Tremont Avenue, who reported Cisse for acting "suspicious and weird." According to the released report, upon their arrival at around 2:34 p.m., the officers encountered Cisse smoking in a back aisle with his hand in his pocket. Despite their attempts to calmly engage and instruct him to remove his hand from his pocket, Cisse did not comply, and subsequently pulled a knife and ran towards one of the officers. In response, the officer fired his weapon, fatally wounding Cisse. The report reveals that a knife was indeed recovered from the scene.
New York law permits law enforcement officers to use deadly force when it is reasonably believed necessary to defend against an imminent threat of deadly force. The investigation conducted by the OSI assessed that in this incident, "a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officer’s use of deadly physical force against Mr. Cisse was justified." The legal implications surrounding the case hinge on the standard that the use of force by the officers cannot be readily proven as unjustified given the circumstances of the confrontation, as detailed by the Office of the New York State Attorney General.
