Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company
Pubdate: 12 Nov 1998
Author: Michael Cooper

MAN SAID TO HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY POLICE RADIO IN HARLEM DIES IN COMA

A 36-year-old man died on Tuesday night after spending nearly two weeks in
a coma after a police officer who was chasing him down a Harlem street
threw a walkie-talkie at him and knocked him off his bicycle, the police
said Wednesday.

Witnesses and law enforcement officials said the man, Kenneth Banks, was
being chased down 125th Street on the afternoon of Oct. 29 by a police
officer who was trying to arrest him on drug possession charges when the
officer hurled his police radio at him and knocked him to the ground. Banks
suffered a fractured skull in the incident, officials said.

The officer, Craig Yokemick, 31, has been placed on modified duty, meaning
his gun has been taken away and he has been assigned to desk work, pending
the outcome of two investigations into the incident, police officials said.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office is to present the case to a grand
jury to see if there is probable cause to believe that the officer broke
any criminal laws, and the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau is
investigating whether he violated departmental guidelines.

The crux of the inquiries is to decide whether the officer used excessive
force and to find out what caused Banks to fall into a coma and die.

A law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
investigators were backing away from earlier theories that the coma had
been caused by drug use or a prior medical condition, and were focusing on
his fall to the pavement, which resulted in a fractured skull and bleeding
inside his skull. "At first blush, it appears to be the brain injury," the
official said.

An autopsy performed Wednesday was inconclusive, said Ellen Borakove, a
spokeswoman for the Chief Medical Examiner's office, so the cause of death
will not be known until further studies are completed.

Relatives of Banks gathered in their lawyer's office Wednesday to ask for
justice in the case.

"Kenneth was a loving man; he was a kind and sweet person," said his
sister, Sheila Banks Anderson, 34. "A son, a loving son, and a wonderful
uncle to his nieces and nephews. He didn't deserve to die this way.
Everyone on 125th Street knew him and loved him, and if Kenny did something
wrong, he didn't deserve to die for it."

Asked about the case last week, Police Commissioner Howard Safir said it
would be premature to comment on whether Officer Yokemick used excessive
force while trying to apprehend Banks. But Safir appeared troubled by the
allegations of witnesses who said they had seen Officer Yokemick hurl his
radio at Banks.

"Ordinarily," Safir said, "I would not think that a police officer would
throw a radio at an individual." Officers are allowed to use moderate force
to catch a fleeing felon but can use deadly force only if there is an
imminent threat to the life of an officer or a member of the public.

A lawyer for Officer Yokemick, Bruce Smirti, said his client denied any
wrongdoing. Smirti refused to comment on whether Officer Yokemick threw his
radio at Banks, but he acknowledged that there was a struggle during the
arrest and that Banks's head hit the pavement at one point. And he
suggested that the coma was brought on by a drug overdose, saying that his
client saw Banks ingesting cocaine to destroy evidence. The police said
Banks had several vials of crack cocaine and a box cutter in his possession
when arrested.

Banks had a criminal record, police officials said. He was convicted of
petty larceny in 1984 and of criminal trespassing in 1997.

And Officer Yokemick, who joined the force in 1991, has been disciplined
previously for his actions on the job. In 1993, he lost 10 vacation days
after being accused of using excessive force and showing discourtesy, and
in 1994, he was reprimanded for using a scooter without permission. In
1995, he was accused of assaulting a Transportation Department employee and
lost 15 vacation days.

On Oct. 29, Officer Yokemick and his partner, whose name was not made
public, were patrolling in a van and saw Banks involved in a drug
transaction on 127th Street and Madison Avenue, police officials said. They
said Banks ignored orders to stop and fled on his bicycle, with the
officers in pursuit. At some point, Officer Yokemick, who is more than six
feet tall and weighs more than 250 pounds, jumped out of the van to
continue the chase on foot.

Officer Yokemick caught up with Banks at the intersection of 125th Street
and Madison Avenue, and witnesses and law enforcement officials said the
officer threw his walkie-talkie at Banks, who fell off his bicycle and hit
his head.

Earl S. Ward, a lawyer for the Banks family, said Banks had been brain-dead
since Oct. 31. And, contrary to reports by law enforcement officials in the
days after the incident, he said that as far as the family knew, Banks did
not have a history of epilepsy or seizures.

"This case is extremely troubling," said Ward, who serves on the Civilian
Complaint Review Board, the agency responsible for investigating and
monitoring allegations of police misconduct.

Ward said it was too early to discuss the possibility of filing a lawsuit
against the city.

Jonathan S. Abady, another lawyer for the family, said the family planned
to retain its own forensic pathologist to conduct an autopsy. And he
criticized the police for taking Banks to the 25th Precinct station house
to process his arrest rather than directly to the hospital.

Police officials said officers at first did not realize the gravity of
Banks's condition. Although they initially called an ambulance, police
officials said, a supervisor on the scene made the decision to take Banks
to the station house on East 119th Street to get out of the way of an angry
crowd that was forming.

Banks, who lived on East 128th Street, was popular among his neighbors. He
did odd jobs around the neighborhood, they said, working in a barber shop
and a restaurant and selling tapes and compact disks.

Banks's mother, Maybell Banks, who divides her time between North Carolina
and Harlem, said it was difficult to cope with his loss. "He was my third
child, and he was a loving son," she said quietly. "We could talk to one
another. We could just talk about anything to one another. We had really
good times together. He would respect me." 
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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski