Prosecutor seeks termination of NYPD sergeant who fatally shot mentally ill woman

Visitors line up at NYPD headquarters
Visitors line up at NYPD headquarters Photo credit Yana Paskova/Getty Images

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The NYPD sergeant who fatally shot a woman having a mental health crisis in 2016 faced an internal trial on Tuesday where a departmental prosecutor said he should be fired for his role in the incident.

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Hugh Barry was acquitted of criminal charges in 2018 for the fatal shooting of Deborah Danner, a schizophrenic woman who Barry killed in her Pugsley Avenue apartment in the Bronx. His internal trial began last October, five years after Danner’s death, where he is accused of failure to supervise and violating tactical guidelines.

Officers and EMTs were responding to calls of the 66-year-old Danner behaving erratically in her building’s hallway, shouting and tearing down posters. Barry, a patrol supervisor in the 43rd Precinct, arrived with Officer John Martin, who said they were not aware that Danner was a paranoid schizophrenic despite riding the elevator with Danner’s twin sister, Jennifer, who alluded to her sister’s mental health issues in a conversation with them.

Neither Barry nor Martin followed up with Danner’s sister about the situation they were approaching nor questioned her further about her sister’s behavior.

Danner was holding a pair of scissors when Barry came upon her which he eventually convinced her to put down. Danner then retrieved a baseball bat from her bedroom at which point Barry shot her, later testifying at his criminal trial that she swung the bat at him and he feared for his life.

Prosecutor David Green argued Barry rushed his response and failed to contain and isolate Danner.

The case sparked outrage amongst the public after it was reported that Barry had not received a de-escalation course. The high-profile case prompted an increase in crisis-intervention training for high-ranking police officers. The city also recently launched an alternative to mental crisis 911 calls where trained mental health workers would respond as opposed to police officers.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Yana Paskova/Getty Images