Justic Department to review Ramarley Graham case

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A grand jury has decided that there wasn't enough evidence to support manslaughter charges against the officer who shot and killed Ramarley Graham and ruled against a second indictment.

Thursday night, the Justice Department said it would review the case.

Anger mixed with bitter disappointment hung over the protest earlier Thursday; an indictment lost to a technicality comes across as a cruel joke by a justice system against a stunned mother and father.

"I have so much pain and anger inside of me and I'm trying to keep calm," said Frank Graham, Ramarley's father.

A Grand Jury has decided not to re-indict Officer Richard Haste who fatally shot an unarmed Ramarley Graham. He was shot last year after police followed him into his grandmother's apartment where Graham was apparently attempting to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet.

Thursday, his mother held nothing back when calling for the U.S. Attorney General to step in.

"The modern day lynching has to stop. It is only a different way of doing it. Gunning down our kids. We want Eric Holder to take this case and look into it and take over," said Constance Malcolm, Ramarley's mother.

The Bronx District Attorney which lost the first indictment when an assistant DA wrongfully instructed the jury said this time that they are surprised and shocked by the Grand Jury's finding of no criminal liability in the death of Ramarley Graham.

"One day we have an indictment and one day we don't. So must be a breakdown in the chain," said Royce Russell, the Graham family's attorney.

The head of the Union representing police officers responded to the decision not to re-indict the officer by saying, "The Grand Jury courageously came to the right and proper decision. Adding that they recognized that police officer Haste was pursuing what he had every reason to believe was a man with a gun."

The parents and the protestors say they will fight for Ramarley and say that as long as police and prosecutors are partners, indictments of cops in wrongful shootings will almost never occur.

"We need a special prosecutor to deal with these kinds of cases; we cannot trust the DA's office that's works so closely with NYPD to prosecute them. I don't think it will ever change," Frank Graham said.

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