One year later, Jarrel Garris' family seeks accountability for death at hands of police

One year ago last week, New Rochelle resident Jarrel Garris died after being shot in a physical confrontation with New Rochelle Det. Steven Conn.

And one year later, Garris' family and community advocates are calling on the New York Attorney General to charge Conn in connection with his death.

"Follow the facts without fear, without favor, and it's there," Raymond Fowler, Garris' father, said in an interview.

Garris, a Black man who struggled with mental illness, was fatally shot by Conn after the detective and Officers Kari Bird and Gabrielle Chavarry attempted to detain Garris in connection with reports of stolen food from a nearby supermarket, New Rochelle Farms. The encounter led to a physical struggle which, the New Rochelle police claim, resulted in Garris reaching for Bird's gun.

Garris' supporters dispute that notion and believe that Conn unnecessarily escalated a relatively minor situation involving stolen food into an all-out brawl. Garris was not himself armed at the time of the encounter.

The state Attorney General, per a legal mandate, opened an investigation into Garris' death, which occurred one week after he had been shot. A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office said in a statement that the investigation remains ongoing.

On the anniversary of Garris' shooting, his family and community members led a march to New Rochelle City Hall in his honor, seeking to ramp up pressure on officials and demand accountability for his death. The scene was tense, with marchers occupying parts of North Avenue against a backdrop of over a dozen police officers observing their movements.

Cries of "Justice for Jarrel" rang out repeatedly during the demonstration.

But the tensions never boiled over into overt confrontation, and the police were largely deferential to the marchers. One protester even walked up to a police officer and shook his hand.

In September, William Wagstaff, a civil rights attorney representing the Garris family, filed a notice of claim against the city of New Rochelle, Conn, Bird and Chavarry, signaling the family's intent to file a lawsuit.

The notice of claim alleges that Conn "escalated the attempted arrest of decedent Jarrel Garris and shot him execution style behind his ear, fabricating that Mr. Garris had a gun, a pre-text to justify shooting Mr. Garris."

The Garris family also argues that the city should have known "about Detective Conn's propensity for violence."

The Journal News/lohud previously reported that Conn was arrested and charged with assault in the third degree during his time as a traffic enforcement officer with the village of Scarsdale. He was accused of assaulting a bus driver for a summer camp in Rockland County. However, those charges were ultimately dismissed.

"When it comes to my son, he was a human being," Fowler said. "In light of his diagnosis, he was a human being. And no human being should have been subjected to what my son was subjected to."

Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can send him an email at astockler@lohud.com . Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com .

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: One year later, Jarrel Garris' family seeks accountability for death at hands of police