By Dan Murphy
In a letter dated March 5, attorney Richard St. Paul, on behalf of the family of Kamal Flowers, requested that Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah unseal grand jury records concerning the death of Flowers by the New Rochelle Police.
In 2020, a Westchester Grand Jury declined to charge New Rochelle Police Officer Alec McKeanna in the death of Kamal Flowers. What is not in dispute is that Flowers, 24, was shot by New Rochelle Police Officer Alec McKenna, on June 5, 2020, and later died.
Flowers friends, family and the some members of the African American community in New Rochelle are calling the incident a questionable shooting after a questionable traffic stop. Westchester law enforcement described Flowers as “wanting to avoid apprehension at all costs” and said that the case should have never been brought to a Grand Jury.
Then Westchester District Attorney Anthony Scarpino presented one charge to the Grand Jury to consider indictment against Officer McKeanna. the charge of intentional murder.
The shooting took place at approximately 10:54 p.m. on Sharot Street, and an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Flowers’ death began immediately following the incident. On June 06, 2020, the day following the shooting, the Attorney General’s Office declined to take the investigation since the deceased was armed at the time of the incident. As such, the Attorney General determined the matter fell outside the jurisdiction of her office under Executive Order 147.
The grand jury was presented with the defaced and operable 9mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun with 10 9mm rounds of ammunition found at the scene and in Mr. Flowers’ pocket. Expert DNA analysis revealed the DNA found on the trigger of the 9mm Ruger handgun matched Mr. Flowers’ DNA. The grand jury heard all the evidence on the use of deadly force during this police encounter and declined to indict officer McKeanna.
In his letter to DA Rocah, St. Paul writes,” I am writing to request that you unseal the grand jury records regarding Kamal Flowers. I represent the Flowers family in their pursuit for justice related to the killing of their loved one by a New Rochelle Police Department officer. On June 5, 2020, Kamal Flowers was fatally shot by Officer Alec McKenna during a traffic stop in which Kamal was a passenger. A grand jury has since decided against indicting the officer. This news has left the Flowers family in complete shock with many unanswered questions and empty promises of justice.
Last month, New York State Attorney General Leticia James announced that her motion to unseal and publicly release the grand jury minutes related to the investigation of Daniel Prude’s death was granted. Prude, a Rochester resident, was also killed by a police officer.
“With “transparency, accountability, and conviction integrity” being of great importance to you, the Flowers family and the community are relying on you to help them understand why the grand jury decided against indictment,” wrote St. Paul, who alluded to a recent decision by New York Attorney General James, who released the following statement explaining her decision.
“As I have contended throughout my entire career, there can be no accountability without transparency, and the public deserves to know what transpires behind closed doors. That is why I filed a motion with the court to have the grand jury proceedings of this case unsealed and made available to the public, which the judge has just granted this evening. As soon as the judge authorizes, my office will release those proceedings so the Prude family, the Rochester community, and communities across the country will no longer be kept in the dark. This is a critical step in effecting the change that is so desperately needed,” wrote AG James.
Last year, Jamal Flowers sister, Pauline Harris, said that the DA should have pursued a lesser charge against Police Officer McKeanna that a grand jury could convict on, instead of only presenting the charge of intentional murder.
Some claim that the car that Flowers was driving in was stopped “for no reason.” “We have a 24-year-old in a car that is pulled over for no reason. He runs from the vehicle and is shot dead. We have a sham, lame duck DA, and a sham grand jury who say that his life isn’t even worth a proper examination before trial. It’s outrageous,” said New Rochelle NAACP President Mark McLean. “We all should have a right to drive and not be subject to being stopped without incident or cause. Nothing these two were doing warranted a pull over and stop. They had no reason to stop them.”
McLean also questioned the story of what happened on the evening of June 5, 2020. Initially, in the hours after the shooting, McLean claims that New Rochelle police told him that the reason that the vehicle, a Dodge rental, was pulled over was because of a complaint from a resident. That story was later changed to have New Rochelle police pulling the car over because of a traffic violation.
