In the nearly nine years since off-duty police officer Wayne Isaacs shot and killed 37-year-old Delrawn Small in an alleged road rage incident in Brooklyn, a criminal prosecution, an acquittal, two lawsuits, an appeal and three investigations have unfolded.
But so far, there has been no NYPD disciplinary trial for Isaacs, who shot Small three times as he approached Isaacs’ vehicle on foot at an East New York intersection in the early hours of July 4, 2016. That, according to the city’s independent Civilian Complaint Review Board, is about to change.
Isaacs was indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury for murder and manslaughter but was acquitted of the charges in November 2017. The NYPD restored him to full duty in December 2018, after the department’s Force Investigation Division determined that he had not violated policy and should not face discipline.
In October 2020, the CCRB substantiated three improper-use-of-force charges against Isaacs — one for each shot — that the board said constituted the crime of assault in the second degree. But it wasn’t until Friday that review board officials told THE CITY that they can finally move forward with their own investigative findings and prosecute Isaacs at a disciplinary trial in the coming months, which the NYPD will be required to conduct.
The board’s decision to proceed to trial comes after a state appellate court in late March reversed a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed the CCRB to gain access to Isaacs’ sealed criminal court file, which includes grand jury material and other evidence the board says it couldn’t obtain through other means.
Isaacs has maintained that he acted in self-defense after Small allegedly punched him through an open car window. His attorney, Stephen Worth, noted that Isaacs was cleared years ago of criminality by the legal system and of misconduct by the Force Investigation Division.
“He’s been back to full duty since 2018,” Worth told THE CITY. “So for this case to go forward, it’s ludicrous.”
Victoria Davis, Small’s younger sister, said that despite the long process and the ups and downs over nearly nine years, she has always tried to remain hopeful — “especially that the people who are responsible for holding Wayne Isaacs accountable would do so.”
“Wayne Isaacs needs to be fired, Wayne Isaacs needs to go through the full disciplinary trial that we’re pursuing, and he needs to be held accountable,” Davis, 40, told THE CITY. “There hasn’t been any accountability thus far.”
Disciplinary cases for incidents in which civilians are killed by police notoriously take a long time, often because of delays in the NYPD’s provision of records to the CCRB but also because criminal investigations and lawsuits intervene.
The termination of police officer Jason Pantaleo in the killing of Eric Garner in 2014 took over five years to resolve, and was the lone time an officer has been terminated as a result of a probe by the CCRB.
More recently, then-NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s decision in April 2024 not to discipline two officers in the shooting death of Kawaski Trawick in his home, confirming the recommendation of an administrative judge, also came over five years after the incident. The police commissioner has unilateral say on disciplinary outcomes but weighs the recommendation of administrative trial judges, who are employed by the NYPD.
As far as disciplining Isaacs, no one has blamed the NYPD for the delays, which CCRB officials suggest is the longest running disciplinary case the board, established in 1993, has been involved in.
A lawsuit from the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s seeking the sealed criminal court records, and the appeal by Isaacs’ attorney that reversed a lower court’s ruling, accounted for three and a half years of elapsed time.
That’s one of the reasons why the CCRB is backing legislation that would give its investigators access to sealed court records involving shootings by police in cases when officers are acquitted.
“Sealing statutes are meant to protect individuals who were wrongfully arrested — not to protect officers who engaged in misconduct,” said CCRB spokesperson Clare Platt. “That’s why the CCRB has been advocating for an exemption to these statutes.”
Legislation that would provide the board with access to sealed files has been introduced in the state Senate and Assembly every year since 2023, but has died in committee twice. It’s still pending in both houses this year.
Long and Winding Road
Early reporting on Small’s killing portrayed Isaacs as the victim of an assault who acted in self-defense. It was later revealed in the court case that Isaacs told responding officers and paramedics that Small had punched him through the open driver’s side window, and that his jaw was hurting.
Within days of the shooting, the pendulum swung the other way after The New York Post published grainy footage of the incident showing Small had barely reached Isaac’s car door when he was shot three times.
The Post’s story on the video said Isaacs “waited just one second before fatally gunning down another driver.” The article acknowledged this contradicted a prior story in the publication that quoted an unnamed person, identified as a witness, who claimed Small had “pummeled” Isaacs.
Advocacy groups, including Communities United for Police Reform, have highlighted that Isaacs failed to render aid to Isaacs after getting out of his car and seeing him bleeding on the street. Isaacs called 911 and requested an ambulance, the group said, but failed to alert the dispatcher that he had just shot someone.
In late September 2016, a Brooklyn grand jury indicted Isaacs on charges of murder and second-degree manslaughter. It was the first police killing prosecuted by the office of state Attorney General, following a 2015 executive order by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — later expanded and written into state law — appointing the attorney general as a special prosecutor for police killings of unarmed individuals.
The trial took place in Brooklyn in late 2017. Despite supporters of Small saying the video clearly demonstrated that he didn’t hit Isaacs or even have enough time to do so prior to getting shot, a number of jurors who acquitted Isaacs told The New York Times they saw something in the footage that resembled a punch.
“His head kind of goes all the way down,” an unidentified male juror told The Times, referring to Small. “Then you see his shoulder come up very clearly, and strike forward. His shoulder drops down.”
Small’s family has said it felt that he was the one that was put on trial rather than Isaacs.
“During the trial, the defense attempted to criminalize Delrawn by focusing on his tattoos and his previous interactions with the criminal legal system — even though there was no way for Isaacs to have known about any of these things when he shot Delrawn,” Davis, his sister, later testified before City Council. “Simply because Isaacs was not convicted by a jury, doesn’t mean he is not guilty of murdering my brother.”
After the acquittal, the court sealed Isaacs’ criminal case file.
It wasn’t until May 2018 that the CCRB received a complaint about the incident, already past the 18-month statute of limitations the board has for substantiating charges against a police officer and filing disciplinary charges. The only exception to that time limit is when the board determines that a member of the department has committed a crime.
In October 2020, the CCRB did just that, finding that Isaac’s use of force wasn’t just beyond the NYPD patrol guide standard for what is reasonably necessary, but that it also constituted assault. If they could persuade an NYPD administrative judge and, then, the NYPD police commissioner of their findings, Isaacs would face disciplinary action for the killing that could include termination.
But in March 2021, Isaacs filed a lawsuit challenging the CCRB’s bid to administratively prosecute him. It failed, but wasn’t dismissed until early 2022.
While that case was pending, the CCRB filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn in late 2021 seeking to obtain the records from the sealed criminal case, arguing that it contained information that was essential to Isaacs’ disciplinary trial. City Corporation Counsel attorneys represented the board on the case.
On March 8, 2023, Brooklyn Supreme Court judge Danny Chun granted the CCRB access to the files, writing that the board had “met its burden by showing that without an unsealing of the criminal records, it could not accomplish protecting the public through investigating and possibly disciplining a police officer.”
Isaacs’ attorney appealed, and 10 days ago the appellate court reversed Chun’s ruling.
“The CCRB’s conclusory allegations that the records are vital and necessary for use in the
defendant’s disciplinary trial are insufficient to justify unsealing the records,” judge Darrell Joseph wrote in the March 26 ruling, with three of four other justices concurring. “Moreover, given that the CCRB was able to conclude its investigation and recommend that the defendant be subject to discipline, it was not ‘impossible’ for the CCRB to fulfill its legal mandate without unsealing the defendant’s records.”
As of last year, Isaacs’ NYPD base salary had doubled since the incident, reaching $105,000. With the terms of a new police officers’ union contract, back pay, overtime and other payments, his total haul that year was $218,000.
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