Kawaski Trawick

Kawaski Trawick (1986 – 14 April 2019) 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. The NYPD officers, Herbert Davis and Brendan Thompson, did not face any consequences for the killing.

Biography Trawick's family lived in Milledgeville, Georgia, about two hours southeast of Atlanta. His mother worked as a state prison guard and would leave early for her job, so Trawick often prepared his three younger siblings for school, cooked and did the laundry. Trawick graduated from Atlanta Technical College in 2013. In 2016 he moved to New York City, wishing to start a dance studio. Trawick lived in a few places when he first moved to New York before moving in mid-2018 to Hill House in the Bronx.

Killing On 14 April 2019 Trawick called 911 saying that he was locked out of his house, where there was food cooking on the hob, and claimed there was a fire. Firefighters left after letting him back into his home. The officers did not answer his question but asked him repeatedly to put down his knife; Trawick in turn replied that he had a knife because he was cooking.

Davis again tried to stop Thompson from using his gun and briefly pushed his gun down, saying, "No, no — don't, don't, don't, don't, don't." Thompson, who had dropped his taser, fired at Trawick three times then once more, striking him twice. The door was closed afterward; accounts varied as to whether the officers closed the door or,

Reactions Writing for ProPublica, Eric Umansky, wrote that the officers could have tried to make a connection with Trawick, as the NYPD trains its officers to do, and answered his question about why they were there, that they could have decided to not use force, or that they could have waited for help, as one former NYPD detective told him, since department policy is to "isolate and contain" people in crisis. Nearly a year and a half after the shooting, Clark released separate body camera video clips depicting the moment when Thompson and Davis entered Trawick's apartment, and a month afterwards ProPublica published additional body camera footage, after the non-profit organization New York Lawyers for the Public Interest used a lawsuit to obtain it from the NYPD, showing a sergeant asking "Who’s hurt?" and two unidentified officers replying "Just a perp."

Trawick's family and activists have urged the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, a civilian-led group investigating police misconduct, to begin a disciplinary trial that would fire the officers from their positions. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams denounced the lack of disciplinary action and declared that the case represented a failure on the city's part to properly respond to mental health issues. Ileana Méndez-Peñate, a spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform, declared that evidence showed that officers escalated the situation.