GOSHEN, N.Y. (AP) — A grand jury has cleared two police officers who shot and killed a man outside a Middletown convenience store.
The two officers have been on paid leave since the November 2013 shooting that left 25-year-old Lennord Whittle dead. Whittle was under treatment for bipolar disorder and had no history of violence, but police say witnesses told them he had chased another man around the store with a knife and refused to drop it when police told him to.
The Middletown Times Herald-Record reports (http://bit.ly/1uMJL7T ) that the investigation into the November 2013 shooting was handled by the Rockland County district attorney’s office to avoid a conflict of interest in the Orange County prosecutor’s office.
Lawyer Michael Sussman says he’ll proceed with a federal wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Whittle’s family.
