The New York Attorney General's Office Special Investigation (OSI) has concluded its probe into the death of Anthony Troy James, who passed away after an altercation with NYPD officers in Harlem last year, announcing that no criminal charges will be brought against the officers involved. On the early hour of June 4, 2022, Mr. James was seen acting erratically, prompting police to intervene and ultimately restrain him—a sequence of events that led to his unfortunate demise after officers had handcuffed him, despite his protests of not being able to breathe, as reported by the Attorney General's Office.
According to the OSI report, officers responded to Mr. James's odd behavior which included running between cars at the intersection of West 148th Street and Seventh Avenue, their attempts to handcuff him resulted in a physical scuffle that saw him pinned against a car hood, screaming that he could not breathe and even after the handcuffs were secured Mr. James was repositioned several times over the next half-hour as officers waited for medical assistance, at one point he appeared to lapse into unconsciousness with officers performing chest compressions and administering Narcan before an ambulance arrived at 2:38 a.m. to take him to the hospital, where he later was pronounced dead.
The OSI's extensive investigation, featuring interviews with witnesses and those officers involved, alongside body-worn and security camera footage, led to the consensus that the officers had a reasonable basis to detain and restrain Mr. James under federal and New York state laws because of the immediate danger he posed to himself and possibly others. This detail, provided by the Attorney General's Office detailed report, points to the officers' administration of Narcan suggesting a possible overdose situation, with no clear evidence indicating that their actions directly led to Mr. James's death.
The autopsy report, backed by an interview with the medical examiner and an independent expert's opinion, was unable to definitively determine the cause of death yet found no direct link between the police officers' attempts to restrain Mr. James and his subsequent passing, these findings according to the Attorney General's Office report provided the legal basis behind the conclusion that a prosecutor would not succeed in convincingly proving that the officers' conduct caused Mr. James's death or consisted of a criminal act, hence the decision not to pursue charges was made.
