Killing of Eleanor Bumpurs

Last updated
Killing of Eleanor Bumpurs
Elanor Bumpurs.jpg
Bumpurs, c. 1984.
DateOctober 29, 1984;39 years ago (1984-10-29)
Location1551 University Avenue
Morris Heights, Bronx, New York, U.S.
Coordinates 40°50′54″N73°55′07″W / 40.848301°N 73.918625°W / 40.848301; -73.918625
CauseResisted eviction with violence
DeathsEleanor Bumpurs, 66
AccusedNYPD officer Stephen Sullivan
ChargesSecond-degree manslaughter
ConvictionsNone
LitigationBumpurs' family filed a lawsuit against New York City, settled for $200,000 (1990)

On October 29, 1984, Eleanor Bumpurs was shot and killed by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The police were present to enforce a city-ordered eviction of Bumpurs, an elderly, disabled African American woman, from her New York Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing apartment at 1551 University Avenue (Sedgwick Houses) in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx. [1]

Contents

In requesting NYPD assistance, housing authority workers told police that Bumpurs was emotionally disturbed, had threatened to throw boiling lye, and was using a knife to resist eviction. When Bumpurs refused to open the door, police broke in. In the struggle to subdue her, one officer fatally shot Bumpurs twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. [2] [3]

Bumpurs' shooting, one of several black deaths that inflamed racial tensions in 1980s New York, led to changes within the police department regarding responses to disabled and emotionally volatile persons. Officer Stephen Sullivan, who shot Bumpurs, was indicted on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, but was ultimately acquitted. Bumpurs' family sued the city for $10 million in damages, and settled for $200,000.

Incident

Prior to the eviction attempt, Bumpurs, who had arthritis and other health problems, had told her daughter Mary that someone in the building was harassing her. Mary advised her to keep the door locked. Bumpurs told a housing authority official she would not pay the rent because she was having maintenance problems, but refused to admit maintenance workers to her apartment when they were sent. In one phone conversation, she told a housing-authority manager she would not pay the rent because "people had come through the windows, the walls and the floors and had ripped her off". When maintenance workers were admitted to the apartment on October 12, they checked a hallway light and stove as requested, finding no problems with them, but found several cans of human feces in the bathtub. Bumpurs blamed these on "Reagan and his people". [4] Four days before the eviction attempt, the city sent a psychiatrist to visit Bumpurs. He concluded that Bumpurs was "psychotic" and "unable to manage her affairs properly" and should be hospitalized. A Social Services supervisor decided that the best way to help Bumpurs was to evict her first, then hospitalize her. [4]

On the morning of October 29, 1984, Bumpurs told housing authority workers who had come to evict her that she would throw boiling lye at the next face to appear. The NYPD Emergency Service Unit, specially trained in subduing emotionally disturbed people was summoned, but was unable to get Bumpurs to come to the door. They drilled out the lock, and through the hole they could see the naked 66-year-old in her living room, holding a 10-inch kitchen knife. The officers then knocked down the door and entered. They attempted to restrain Bumpurs with plastic shields and a special Y-shaped bar, but she fought free. Officer Stephen Sullivan fired two shots from his 12-gauge pump action shotgun. One pellet from the first shot struck Bumpurs' hand; all nine pellets from the second shot struck her in the chest, killing her. [2] [3] [5]

Aftermath

Reactions

The case brought much notice: the victim was black, a senior citizen, and mentally ill. Some observers claimed that the fact that two shots had been fired also raised questions. To meet the criticism of the public, the PBA aired radio and print advertisements asserting that Bumpurs was a severe threat to the officers in the apartment: "This 300-pound woman suddenly charged one of the officers with a 12-inch butcher knife, striking his shield with such force that it bent the tip of the steel blade." [6] There followed the development of a new, special program to train police officers in New York State to work safely and effectively with "Emotionally Disturbed People (EDPs)". Employees of the NY State Department of Mental Health, along with those of the NYPD and NY State Police were trained as trainers. The new, mandatory course was delivered at the NYPD and State Police Training Academies, and to officers already in service. The program was delivered by training teams composed of police and mental health employees. It was an attempt to address the problem of safely controlling potentially dangerous situations.

A grand jury was convened to investigate Sullivan's actions. On January 30, 1985, the grand jury indicted Sullivan on charges of second-degree manslaughter, to which Sullivan pleaded not guilty. However, on April 12, Judge Vincent A. Vitale of State Supreme Court dismissed the indictment, ruling that under the New York State Penal Code "the evidence before the grand jury was legally insufficient to support the offense charged or any lesser included offense", and that Sullivan's "acts were in conformity with the guidelines and procedures outlined" in the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit manual. [5] The case took another turn on appeal when, on November 25, 1986, the New York Court of Appeals reinstated Sullivan's second-degree manslaughter indictment by a 6-1 vote. Chief Justice Sol Wachtler was the lone dissenter, saying that the evidence warranted more serious charges. [7]

Trial of Officer Sullivan

Sullivan waived his right to a jury trial, choosing a bench trial before a judge only. The trial opened on January 12, 1987, over two years after Bumpurs' death. The trial hinged on whether Sullivan had used excessive force, especially in firing twice at Bumpurs. His fellow officers testified that Bumpurs was still not immobilized after the first blast hit her hand, and therefore still posed a threat to the police. [8] In addition, two plastic surgeons testifying as expert witnesses for the defense said that Bumpurs could have continued to slash at the officers trying to subdue her even after her hand had been injured by the first shotgun blast. By contrast, the emergency room physician who treated Bumpurs immediately after the shooting stood by his grand jury testimony that her hand was left "a bloody stump" by the first shot. [9] On February 26, 1987 Judge Fred W. Eggert acquitted Sullivan on the charges of manslaughter. [10] On August 4, 1987 federal prosecutors declined to investigate the Bumpurs case. Rudy Giuliani, who was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan at the time, stated that he had found "nothing indicating that the case was not tried fully, fairly and competently", and that there was no "proof of a specific intent to inflict excessive and unjustified force." [11]

Civil suit and Social services demotions

The Bumpurs family filed a civil suit against the city for $10 million in damages. [7] In March 1990, the city agreed to pay $200,000 to the Bumpurs estate, marking a close to the legal proceedings stemming from the shooting. Two supervisors in the city's Social Services administration were later demoted for failing to seek an emergency rent grant for Bumpurs and for not getting her proper psychiatric aid. [3]

Legacy

The Bumpurs case was one of several racially charged cases in New York during the 1980s that exacerbated racial tensions. Others were the fatal assault on Willie Turks in 1982, the 1983 arrest and death of Michael Stewart while in police custody, the subway shooting of four men by Bernhard Goetz in 1984, the fatal assault on Michael Griffith in 1986, the shooting of six NYPD officers by Larry Davis also in 1986, and the murder of Yusef Hawkins in 1989. Since shortly after Bumpurs' death, members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit have carried Tasers, weapons that can deliver thousands of volts of incapacitating electric current, as an alternative to the use of firearms when dealing with the mentally ill. [12]

"Hold On" from Lou Reed's 1989 album New York contains the following line: "The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend they shot him in the car where he sat. And Eleanor Bumpurs and Michael Stewart must have appreciated that."

Spike Lee dedicated the 1989 film Do the Right Thing to the families of Eleanor Bumpurs and other victims. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in New York City</span> Overview of crime in New York City, New York, US

Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s. They have spiked ever since the post-war period. The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged, and then declined continuously since the mid-1990s and throughout the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Davis (born 1966)</span> American criminal from the Bronx, New York, United States

Larry Davis, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a black man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.

Anthony Ramon Baez was a security guard who died immediately following an altercation with police on December 22, 1994, at the age of 29. His death occurred early in the morning on Cameron Place in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx, New York. The fatal encounter began when Anthony Baez and his brothers accidentally hit a police car with their football, at approximately 1:30 am. The Baez brothers continued their game, playing in the opposite direction. Officer Francis Livoti arrested David Baez first for disorderly conduct. He then attempted to arrest Anthony Baez, who had physically interfered in his brother's arrest, by crossing his arms in front of his chest. A scuffle ensued, while other officers arrived on scene. Baez was subdued, lost consciousness, and was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead of asphyxiation. Controversy centered over the extent to which officers contributed to his death, specifically whether he was subjected to an unauthorized choke hold by Officer Francis Livoti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlem riot of 1964</span> 1964 American riot

The Harlem riot of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. It began after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American, was shot and killed by police Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan in front of Powell's friends and about a dozen other witnesses. Hundreds of students from Powell's school protested the killing. The shooting set off six consecutive nights of rioting that affected the New York City neighborhoods of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant. By some accounts, 4,000 people participated in the riots. People attacked the New York City Police Department (NYPD), destroyed property, and looted stores. Several protesters were severely beaten by NYPD officers. The riots and unrest left one dead, 118 injured, and 465 arrested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramona Moore homicide</span> A homicide in New York

On April 21, 2015, the remains of a woman found in South Blooming Grove, New York, were identified as those of Ramona Moore. The 21-year-old woman had last been seen on July 31, 2012, re-entering her apartment in a house near Crotona Park in the Bronx, New York City. In 2014, New York City police had charged her building superintendent, Nasean Bonie, with her murder although there was no body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct</span> Overview of misconduct and corruption in the NYPD

Throughout the history of the New York City Police Department, numerous instances of corruption, misconduct, and other allegations of such, have occurred. Over 12,000 cases have resulted in lawsuit settlements totaling over $400 million during a five-year period ending in 2014. In 2019, taxpayers funded $68,688,423 as the cost of misconduct lawsuits, a 76 percent increase over the previous year, including about $10 million paid out to two exonerated individuals who had been falsely convicted and imprisoned.

Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old black man, was fatally shot on November 20, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, by a New York City Police Department officer. Two police officers, patrolling stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)'s Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, entered a pitch-dark, unlit stairwell. Officer Peter Liang, 27, had his firearm drawn. Gurley and his girlfriend entered the seventh-floor stairwell, fourteen steps below them. Liang fired his weapon; the shot ricocheted off a wall and fatally struck Gurley in the chest. A jury convicted Liang of manslaughter, which a court later reduced to criminally negligent homicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Bich Cau Thi Tran</span> Shooting of a Vietnamese immigrant by the police in California

The killing of Bich Cau Thi Tran occurred in San Jose, California, on July 13, 2003. She was fatally shot by a San Jose Police officer in her home. Bích Câu was wielding an Asian vegetable peeler at two police officers and was then shot once in the chest. The incident led to protests from the Vietnamese American community in San Jose, accusing the officer of using excessive force. Her family was awarded $1.8 million in a lawsuit filed against the city of San Jose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Ramarley Graham</span> 2012 police killing of a black man in New York City

The killing of Ramarley Graham took place in the borough of the Bronx in New York City on February 2, 2012. Richard Haste, a New York Police Department officer, shot Graham in the bathroom of the latter's apartment. The 18-year-old Graham was in possession of marijuana when Officer Haste tried to stop him on the street. Graham fled to his grandmother’s house, and went into the bathroom to flush the marijuana. Officer Haste forced his way into the building, kicked down the front door and then broke down the bathroom where he shot Ramarley Graham to death. Haste could be seen on surveillance cameras smiling and laughing with the responding officers and detectives—the same men who would later testify they had told Haste that Graham had a gun. Haste claimed to believe Graham had been reaching for a gun in his waistband, but no weapon was recovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Merola (lawyer)</span> American politician

Mario Merola was a New York City Councilman from 1964 to 1971 and the District Attorney of Bronx County, New York, from 1972 to 1987.

Deborah Danner, 66, was fatally shot by New York City Police Department Sgt. Hugh Barry on October 18, 2016, in her home in the Bronx, New York. According to police sources, she was armed with first a pair of scissors and then a baseball bat. According to an emergency medical technician, she had put the scissors down, and later on picked up a baseball bat. Barry was charged with murder and manslaughter in May 2017. He was acquitted in February 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Botham Jean</span> 2018 murder case in Texas

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

Alabama v. Jones was a U.S. legal case that took place in the state of Alabama. The case is notable as the first attempt, at least in the state, to charge a pregnant woman for suffering a miscarriage. The case was of special interest to feminist groups and reproductive rights groups. A grand jury charged her with manslaughter but the prosecutors ultimately dismissed the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edenwald Houses</span> Public housing development in New York City

Edenwald Houses are a housing project in the Eastchester and Laconia neighborhoods of the Bronx, New York City. Established on October 30, 1953, the project consists of forty buildings, 3 and 14 stories tall with 2,039 apartment units. It covers a 48.88-acre development is bordered by Grenada Place, East 225th Street, Baychester Avenue, Schieffelin Avenue and Laconia Avenues. It is owned and managed by New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and is the largest development in the Bronx.

The Gresham cat hostage taking Incident occurred on August 21, 1994, and involved an emotionally disturbed 28-year-old woman named Janet Marilyn Smith, who took her own pet Siamese cat hostage in the Fred Meyer store at 2497 East Burnside Road in Gresham, Oregon, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Daunte Wright</span> Police homicide in Minnesota

On April 11, 2021, Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black American man, was fatally shot in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, by police officer Kimberly Potter during a traffic stop and attempted arrest for an outstanding warrant. After a brief struggle with officers, Potter shot Wright in the chest once at close range. Wright then drove off a short distance until his vehicle collided with another and hit a concrete barrier. An officer administered CPR to Wright; paramedics were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Potter said she meant to use her service Taser, shouting "Taser! Taser! Taser!" just before firing her service pistol instead.

Kawaski Trawick was an African American personal trainer and dancer who was shot and killed on 14 April 2019 by police officers at his home in the Bronx, New York City.

References

  1. ↑ "African Americans and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia". ABC-CLIO. 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Wilson, Michael (2003-12-28). "When Mental Illness Meets Police Firepower; Shift in Training for Officers Reflects Lessons of Encounters Gone Awry". The New York Times . Retrieved 2003-12-28. In 1984, a 66-year-old woman named Eleanor Bumpurs, four months behind in the $98.65 rent at her Bronx apartment, threatened housing workers who came to evict her that she would hurl boiling lye at the next face at her door. Officers arrived with shields and a special Y-shaped bar used to pin people to the wall, but the woman, almost 300 pounds and naked, fought her way free, waving a knife and trying to slash an officer. His partner shot her twice with a shotgun, once in the hand and once, fatally, in the chest.
  3. 1 2 3 Raab, Selwyn (1984-11-27). "AUTOPSY FINDS BUMPURS WAS HIT BY TWO BLASTS". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-02-17. An autopsy on a Bronx woman who was fatally shot by the police in an eviction dispute indicates that she was hit by two shotgun blasts, not one, as originally reported by police officials.
  4. 1 2 Merola, Mario (1988). Big City D.A. . Random House. pp.  7–27. ISBN   0-394-55263-6.
  5. 1 2 Raab, Selwyn (1985-04-13). "STATE JUDGE DISMISSES INDICTMENT OF OFFICER IN THE BUMPURS KILLING". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-02-17. In his ruling, the judge said there was testimony that when the officers assured Mrs. Bumpurs 'there was no desire to hurt her,' she responded 'with repeated threats' and displayed a large knife.
  6. ↑ Buder, Leonard.Officers' Union Runs Ads Backing Action Of Police in Bumpurs Case." New York Times 13 December 1984, p. B18.
  7. 1 2 Hevesi, Dennis (1986-11-26). "COURT ALLOWS BUMPURS CASE TO BE TRIED". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-02-17. New York State's highest court reinstated a manslaughter charge yesterday against a police officer who killed a knife-wielding, emotionally disturbed woman during an attempt to evict her from her Bronx apartment in 1984.
  8. ↑ Hudson, Edward (1987-01-21). "EX-OFFICER DESCRIBES KEY MOMENT AT SCENE OF THE BUMPURS SHOOTING". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-11-09. A retired police officer testified yesterday that Eleanor Bumpurs made repeated stabbing motions at him after a fellow officer fired the first of two shotgun blasts during a 1984 police eviction attempt in her Bronx apartment.
  9. ↑ Prial, Frank J. (1987-02-10). "2 DOCTORS TESTIFY SHOT LEFT BUMPUR'S GRIP INTACT". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-11-09. One witness yesterday, Dr. Jane A. Petro, chief of microsurgery at the Westchester Medical Center, said that based on photographs, X-rays and a medical examiner's reports on Mrs. Bumpurs, "there was no apparent damage to the part of the hand that controls the power grip," the small and ring fingers.
  10. ↑ Prial, Frank J. "Judge Acquits Sullivan In Shotgun Slaying of Bumpurs." New York Times 27 February 1987, p. B1.
  11. ↑ "U.S. Inquiry Ruled Out In Death of Bumpurs." New York Times 5 August 1987, p. B3.
  12. ↑ Fahim, Kareem; Hauser, Christine (2008-09-25). "Taser Use in Man's Death Broke Rules, Police Say". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-05-06. The officers in the unit have carried Tasers since shortly after the 1984 death of Eleanor Bumpurs, a disturbed, obese woman who was shotgunned to death by an officer in her apartment after she escaped a restraint and brandished a knife.
  13. ↑ Brody, Richard (2019-06-28). "The Enduring Urgency of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" at Thirty". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.