One Man’s Trial Shows the Long Reach of Ferguson, Staten Island, and Bed-Stuy

February 3, 2015
By Reid Cherlin

Late on a September night in 2011, a 30-year-old black man named Jerry Benoit was crossing Linden Boulevard in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, when he was approached by a plainclothes policeman who saw him tugging at his waistband — a sign, the sergeant would say later, that he might be carrying an illegal gun. Benoit, who had prior convictions on weapons and armed robbery charges, fled down East 49th Street, allegedly firing two wayward shots at the officer now pursuing him. He disappeared into a back lot, drawing a full stakeout by the NYPD. Finally, with the cordon tightening around him and a police helicopter beating overhead, Benoit made a break for it. Hopping over a fence, he encountered an officer at close range and allegedly fired again. This time the cops shot back, unloading more than 40 rounds at Benoit, who was struck twice.

The case against Benoit took three years to go to trial — typical for New York’s backlogged courts. Jury selection began on November 17, 2014, and the attorneys gave their opening arguments on November 20. That night a policeman shot and killed 28-year-old Akai Gurley in the darkened stairwell of an East New York house project. On November 24, the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson, and the protests there erupted back into flames. Nine days after that, with testimony in the Benoit case still proceeding, a grand jury in Staten Island declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantoleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

Read on at New York Magazine→