Officer who fatally shot Kimani Gray named ‘Cop of the Year’, declines amid outrage
A New York police officer who fatally shot a 16-year-old boy in 2013 has been named “Cop of the Year.”
But Sgt. Mourad Mourad declined the award from the NYPD Muslim Officers Society after community members protested it.
In 2013, 16-year-old Kimani Gray was killed when two plainclothes New York Police officers shot him seven times. Police claimed Gray had a gun, though witnesses disagreed with the officers’ story.
The two police involved in the shooting, Sgt. Mourad Mourad and Officer Jovaniel Cordova, have not faced any charges as a result of the shooting. […]
A spokesperson for the Muslim Officers Society could not immediately be reached for comment.
“He’s done a lot of work taking down criminals and taking a lot of guns and drugs off the street,” Lt. Adeel Rana told the New York Daily News on why he was originally chosen for the award. Mourad had also been honored by the department in 2011 with an award for outstanding police work.
Gray’s family and their supporters were obviously outraged by the group’s choice, calling it “an insult to the family and community.”
The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition also protested the decision. “We find it unconscionable that he would be considered for an award. The muslim community is a community that stands up for the civil rights and is sensitive to the plight of marginalized communities who suffer the abuses of the NYPD,” it wrote in a statement.
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