The Albany Community Police Review Board met Friday in a special session.
In its shortest session in recent memory, the board took approximately 7 minutes to address the recent shooting, where 28-year-old Amiel Layeni opened fire on Officer Jonathan Damphier around 12:30 a.m. April 17th in the area of North Main and Western Avenues. Police Chief Eric Hawkins says Damphier, who was shot in the leg, had attempted to pull over the suspect for a traffic violation, lost sight of his vehicle, but came upon it a short time later.
"The suspect clearly fired at the officer first, struck the officer," Hawkins said. " The officer returned fire at some point during that confrontation. It was over 10 rounds that we found at the scene. Ten shell casings, more than 10 shell casings were found at the scene."
Hawkins says Layeni took his own life moments after engaging with Damphier. Hawkins explained his officers are trained to engage with traffic violators if they're a single unit without calling for backup.
The board voted Friday to proceed with an independent investigation into the incident.
A few days earlier Hawkins was profiled in a “New York Times” article about civilian-run police oversight boards. The newspaper reported Hawkins told his officers not to cooperate with the Albany CPRB on a different case.
A relative of Layeni spoke during the public comment period.
"My name is Sheena Collier, I am the aunt of Amiel Layeni. And just want to say that this is part of his family, his parents who are here, who I'm speaking on behalf of, very devastated by this tragedy. And as we've shared before with the review board, and others, [we] really are mainly concerned about the lack of information that we have about what happened that night and what has happened since. And so we are hoping through this process and through other processes that we're pursuing, that we're able to know the full picture and the truth. Also, condolences to the officer who was injured," said Collier.
Damphier was released from the hospital April 24th and faces several months of rehabilitation.
Contract investigator Julie Schwartz of “investigations and consulting” firm T&M says police provided them with photographs and body camera video.
"It's impossible to do an investigation without being able to control the evidence. So that's why we are requesting that the board issue a subpoena duces tecum, so that we can get the entire case file, the criminal investigation file, the OGS file, all their interviews, all their canvassing, so that we can keep it, where as you know, with axon if we look on something, they know we're, that's not independent. And we get it for 30 days, and then we have to ask for it again. And it's not labeled in the way that we would label it. So just so that we can be more efficient and more thorough. We're asking the Board to subpoena the APD, for the entire case file," said Schwartz.
CPRB Investigative Chair John Levendosky says it’s standard policy for the panel to act on investigation on any incident where a member of the public dies in a police interaction.
"This is not putting the blame," Levendosky said. "One of the reasons we do this in such a broad manner, is to make sure that it's subjective. And us investigators starting an investigation does not in any way impune an officer or what the department said, it's just to create a greater level of transparency around the incident for community trusts. In addition to that, we have a policy where now, for any investigation, we subpoena the files, any independent investigation, we subpoena the files related to it. So our investigators have much clearer access, direct access to the investigation materials, so we have a an efficient and speedy investigation."
Levendosky says the CRPB wishes Damphier well. "Anytime he would ever like to speak to any of us or the board in general, [we'll] definitely be open to speak with him as well. But just saying that I you know, wish him a very quick recovery and I hope him and his family feel secure in his job still and he continues to do it after he recovers."
The New York attorney general office is also investigating the incident per state law.
