The police posted photos of Camden Lee, 16, on social media and said he was wanted for the shooting. Only after five months did they admit they were wrong.
The police posted photos of Camden Lee, 16, on social media and said he was wanted for the shooting. Only after five months did they admit they were wrong.
The police posted photos of Camden Lee, 16, on social media and said he was wanted for the shooting. Only after five months did they admit they were wrong.
The New York Police Department apologized on Sunday for falsely accusing a teenager of a deadly shooting at a Brooklyn parade last year and then declining to retract the allegation for months after privately admitting that the department had been wrong.
The apology came after months of pleas from the family of the teenager, Camden Lee, 16, and an investigation by The Associated Press, which reported that the police “almost immediately” realized they had made a mistake. But it would take nearly five months for the department to publicly acknowledge that its accusation — posted in September and later quietly removed from social media — was unfounded.
In a statement on Sunday, the department said that it had mistakenly posted Mr. Lee’s picture online as someone who “was wanted for the fatal shooting” at the West Indian American Day Parade, an annual celebration held on and around Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn every September. The shooting killed one person and injured four more, spreading panic through a large crowd of revelers. The police have not charged anyone in connection with the shooting.
The apology from the department did not mention Mr. Lee by name, but said the person shown in the picture that was shared had been a person of interest, not a suspect. The term “person of interest” is a broad category that can include people who the police think may have information useful to an investigation.
“The N.Y.P.D. identified a person of interest who was on the scene before, during and after the incident, which is supported by video evidence and witness accounts,” the department said in the statement. “Social media posts in September mistakenly stated that he was wanted for the fatal shooting, rather than stating that he was a person of interest.”
“The N.Y.P.D. should have immediately corrected this misstatement,” it continued. “We apologize for the error, and will continue to seek justice for the victims of this shooting.”