By Alex Gecan and Lynn La
A New York City corrections officer told The Brooklyn Ink yesterday that police had handcuffed and detained her and her 13-year-old son for six hours Sunday night, grilling them into the early morning about a shoot-out that occurred in the woman’s East New York apartment building, in which one officer was shot and injured.
Lolita Smith, 43, said that when she asked the police if they knew where her daughter was, an officer told her that they would strap her to a gurney if she didn’t “shut up.” She said that police showed no leniency to her asthmatic son. She said they pushed him to the ground and put handcuffs on him, bruising his arms and legs. “Why would they do that to a 13-year-old kid?” she said.
Lolita Smith, a 15-year DOC veteran who works at Rikers Island, told The Brooklyn Ink that plainclothes and uniformed police officers handcuffed her and her son, Elijah Callahan, even though Smith identified herself as a corrections officer. She said that the police “ransacked” her apartment in order to determine whether Smith’s firearm had been involved in the shootout and questioned her 18-year-old daughter, Meoshia.
Police would not comment on the detainment. “You know they ain’t going to talk to you,” a receptionist at the 75th Precinct told The Ink.
Smith said that she intends to file a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Her attorney, Bernard Udell, was not available for comment yesterday.
Police searched Smith’s apartment as part of a larger investigation of the building, where several officers apprehended Elijah Foster-Bey, 17, of Long Island after chasing him off his bike and into the building, finally shooting him through the legs and abdomen. Officer Richard Ramirez of the 75th Precinct was also shot twice in the leg.
Ramirez is recovering at the Kings County Hospital Center; administrators declined to comment on his status. Foster-Bey is recovering under guard in the surgical intensive care unit at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.
Smith said that she was first alarmed by the sound of running footsteps on Sunday evening. “It sounded like somebody was getting jumped,” she said. Seconds later, she heard a single gunshot, followed by several more, then a radio call of “10-13.” She explained that that indicated an “officer down.”
Smith said that she opened her apartment door and encountered uniformed and plain-clothes officers. She identified herself as a corrections officer and explained that she was armed. The officers then handcuffed her and knocked her son to the ground, handcuffing him as well, she said.
She had opened the door in order to look for her daughter, who had been downstairs at the building’s front entrance when Foster-Bey entered the building. “He needed a getaway,” she said, guessing that Foster-Bey had entered the building’s front gate as though he were casually approaching Meoshia. Meoshia was escorted away from the building by police. Smith had been calling her, but Meoshia had dropped her phone, Smith said.
Both siblings recognized Foster-Bey as a familiar face in Linton Park, which is across the street from their apartment.
Smith said that officers held her and her son until 2:00 a.m., questioning them about the shooting and about Smith’s weapon. Smith and her children were prohibited from re-entering their building until 10:00 Monday morning and were forced to stay with Smith’s mother. When they were escorted back to their apartment, she said, they found it in disarray. She believes it had been ransacked in the course of the investigation.
Police finished clearing the crime scene yesterday afternoon, taking down caution tape and removing a green mountain bike. Officers at the scene said that the bike belonged to Foster-Bey, but the Callahan siblings said that it was the wrong bike.
There was another green mountain bike inside the gate of the building.
There were also still thick blotches and smears of dried blood throughout the three floors of the building. Smith began bleaching and mopping away the blood Tuesday afternoon.
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NYDP Statement, 10:30 AM:
The corrections officer told detectives that she heard a commotion in the hall, and out of concern that her daughter might be arriving at that time, got her gun and opened her apartment door with the weapon in her hand; at which point officers, as a precaution, disarmed her and handcuffed her and two male teenagers present. After their identities were established, the handcuffs were removed within 15 minutes. Her gun was and ID were also returned to her. She did not complain of any mistreatment when she was interviewed by squad detectives at approximately 11:00 p.m. on Sunday as they interviewed potential eye-witnesses to the shooting; nor did she complain about any mistreatment to Internal Affairs Bureau investigators when they interviewed her at approximately 1:20 a.m. Monday as part of IAB’s routine and separate interviews of any potential eyewitnesses in all police -involved shootings.
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