Video Shows Sergeant Shooting Man and Dropping Knife, Spurring Inquiry

NEW YORK — Moments after Sgt. Ritchard Blake shot and wounded a man who had confronted him amid a dispute over a woman they both knew, the sergeant patted down the man’s pockets as if looking for a weapon, surveillance footage shows.

There was nothing there: The man was unarmed.

But then Blake, who was off-duty, pulled a sheath knife from his back pocket and dropped it out of its covering beside the man, Thavone Santana, as he lay on a Brooklyn sidewalk, the video shows. After briefly pacing, Blake picked it back up.

Those images of Blake seemingly trying to plant a knife on Santana before thinking better of it are at the center of an intense investigation that has also focused attention on red flags that Blake’s off-duty conduct had already raised.

Blake, 40, had been arrested and charged with assaulting a woman in 2016 and was still on a form of administrative probation when he shot Santana, 21, early Thursday morning. Later on Thursday, the Police Department stripped Blake of his gun and badge and placed him on modified duty.

Santana remained hospitalized Friday in stable condition after being operated on for a gunshot wound to the mouth. Chris Banks, a community activist in East New York, said Santana’s eyes were open and he was communicating with people at his bedside through hand signals.

As investigators scrutinized the surveillance video, which was described by two law enforcement officials and later published online by NBC New York, some questions persisted about the aftermath of the shooting.

The Police Department initially told reporters Thursday morning that the off-duty sergeant fired his weapon because a man pretending to have a gun tried to rob him.

It was not clear where that account came from. A law enforcement official said Friday that Blake told responding officers at the scene that Santana told him he had a gun, but not that Santana had been trying to rob him.

Blake also told the officers he was concerned about the safety of his girlfriend, the woman whose relationship with the two men had been the source of a simmering dispute between them.

Investigators on Friday were trying to piece together a rolling skirmish that had ended in Blake firing two shots at Santana on the sidewalk in the neighborhood of East New York.

A neighbor of Blake’s girlfriend, who declined to give his name, said a number of people had arrived at her apartment in the hours before the shooting and tried to break down the door, though it was not clear why they were there or how the standoff ended. Banks, the community activist, said both Santana and Blake had been at the woman’s apartment. He said they had been quarreling over her.

Around 5 a.m., Blake was walking away from her home to head to work at the 109th Precinct in Queens, where he was to report for a 7 a.m. tour, two law enforcement officials said. Santana, following behind him, caught up and got his attention.

The rest of the encounter is visible on the surveillance footage. Blake holds his arms out at his sides as he talks. Santana keeps one hand in his shorts pocket as he creeps closer to Blake.

Blake said Santana told him he was armed, the two law enforcement officials said.

Blake fired his gun twice, hitting Santana once in the face, and then called 911 to report an off-duty shooting.

The Police Department said in a statement Friday, “The video captures actions that raise serious questions, and require further investigation.”

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said in a statement that investigators from the office went to the shooting scene and were doing “an independent and thorough” review.

“We will follow the facts and evidence wherever they lead us,” the statement said.

Attempts to reach Blake on Friday were unsuccessful.

The shooting quickly drew criticism from local elected officials and community leaders, who on Friday afternoon accompanied Santana’s mother, Arrie Spencer, to meet with officials at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. They urged prosecutors to charge Blake with attempted murder.

“We’ve been down this road before,” said the Rev. Kevin McCall, a representative of the National Action Network, at a news conference outside the district attorney’s office on Jay Street. “Meeting is good, but we want to make sure they investigate fairly, not sweep it under a rug.”

McCall pointed to Blake’s disciplinary history. After being charged with assaulting a woman, he was suspended for 36 days and placed on dismissal probation, according to a New York Daily News story on police discipline published in March. That designation allows officers who have been disciplined to continue to work but gives the police commissioner the power to fire them without a trial during a yearlong probation.

The speakers also protested that Santana had been handcuffed in the hospital.

“We’re telling the police department, the commissioner, they owe this family an apology for handcuffing her son,” said Assemblyman Charles Barron, D-Brooklyn. “While he was heavily sedated and committed no crime, they handcuffed him in the hospital.”

Spencer said just a few words: “I want justice for my son and my family.”