An open can of beer tossed near Riverside Drive and West 136th Street set off a chain of events that ended with 25-year prison veteran Shelton Ennis dead on the pavement of Manhattan's Riverside Park, and now New York's top prosecutor says no one will face charges for it. The New York State Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation announced this week that the NYPD officer who tackled Ennis during a foot pursuit on June 26, 2025, will not be criminally charged, finding no evidence of intent, recklessness, or negligence under state law.
According to the New York Attorney General's Office, officers first engaged Ennis at 9:52 p.m. after spotting him discard an open beer can, with the New York Daily News reporting officers found him drinking from a paper bag near West 137th Street and Riverside Drive around 10:05 p.m. When Ennis gave officers a false name and date of birth and said he had no identification, they could not locate him in NYPD databases and told him he would need to come to the 26th Precinct to be identified, per the Daily News account. Ennis ran. An officer chased him down and tackled him from behind, and he lost consciousness after hitting the ground.
EMS arrived at 10:13 p.m. while Ennis was still breathing, according to the Attorney General's report, but he was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Morningside at 10:49 p.m. An autopsy determined that the impact of hitting the ground tore the wall of his heart, and that tear killed him, the Daily News reported.
Why the Officer Won't Face Charges
Attorney General Letitia James said her office found no evidence the officer intended to injure Ennis and cleared him of all criminal liability, according to the Daily News. Investigators pointed to New York Penal Law Section 35.30, which authorizes officers to use physical force when reasonably necessary to effect a lawful arrest or prevent an escape from custody, according to FindLaw. Separately, New York Criminal Procedure Law Section 140.15 addresses arrest authority and justifiable force, per Justia Law.
The underlying infraction that started the encounter was minor by design. Under Section 1-05 of the New York City Parks Rules and Regulations, consuming alcohol or possessing it with intent to consume in a public park is prohibited, according to nyccriminalattorneys.com. It is the kind of stop that normally ends with a summons, not a death.
State Oversight Under a 2021 Mandate
The Office of Special Investigation's involvement stems from New York State Executive Law Section 70-b, enacted in 2021, which requires the Attorney General's office to evaluate and investigate any incident where a police officer may have caused a civilian death by act or omission, as Hoodline has previously reported. The office released police body-worn camera footage of the foot pursuit on January 28, 2026, as its investigation continued, according to the Attorney General's office. The Ennis report, dated September 22, 2026, was one of two September investigation announcements by the state watchdog.
The Riverside Park area near West 136th and 137th Streets sits within Manhattan Community District 9, under the primary patrol jurisdiction of the NYPD's 26th Precinct, headquartered at 520 West 126th Street. It's a stretch of West Harlem that has seen other law enforcement flashpoints in Riverside Park, including a July 2025 shooting that wounded an off-duty CBP officer.
A Life Marked by a Quarter-Century Behind Bars
Ennis had eight arrests on his record, including one for attempted murder, and had spent nearly 26 years in prison on drug charges, according to the Daily News. He was released in November 2023 and was working as a resident assistant at the Skyline Hotel in Hell's Kitchen at the time of his death, the outlet reported. A coworker told the Daily News that Ennis came home from prison after doing over 25 years and got his life together.
His conviction was upheld in a 2008 New York Court of Appeals ruling in People v. Ennis, according to Justia Law. Ennis ran the operation with his brother and a third man, and members used violence against rival dealers who sold drugs near their territory, the Daily News reported, including an August 1996 shooting that paralyzed one rival dealer and a December 1996 stabbing of two others carried out by Ennis and his brother. Ennis's parole was scheduled to expire in 2035, meaning he was still under state supervision when he encountered officers in Riverside Park last year.
That parole status offers a possible explanation for why Ennis ran rather than wait to be identified at the precinct, though the dossier record does not resolve his motivations definitively. Officials said officers recovered a pocketknife from Ennis, but officials also said Ennis did not threaten police with it.
Other Police-Involved Deaths
Hoodline has also reported on a separate East Harlem in-custody death.
