GWB shooting: Attorney for victim's family reacts to downgraded charge

Well, yesterday, the family held a press conference with their attorneys. The two major emotions and feelings here, outrage and heartbreak. The retired NYPD cop is charged with first degree manslaughter for this shooting. I want to go ahead and we're going to play you the sound from the victim's aunt and his sister. And again, this is from yesterday. A retired police officer intentionally fired a bullet and killed him. And instead of it being murder, it's called manslaughter. My brother is a hero. He's my hero. And I talk to him every single day on that commute that he does to go home. recklessness and ego of the road rager to take my brother's life all right that is from yesterday that was the sister and the aunt of the victim joining me live right now is one of the attorneys representing the victim's family uh attorney keith white attorney white first of all thank you so much for joining me today i know you're extremely busy i was covering that news conference yesterday and you of course spoke there as well so thank you for joining me today thanks for having me. The first thing I would like to ask you is why has the family secured a legal team? Is it because you plan on suing and or is it because you wanna make sure that this case is handled properly through the judicial system? So I think that there are two ways to look at this. One through the court of public opinion and then also through the court of law. when an innocent black man is shot and killed by police or law enforcement or former law enforcement, there's a narrative that is attempted to be painted about that person. And so we wanted to make sure that we control the narrative. So Karan Irvine was a doting and dedicated father, doting and dedicated husband. He was loved by his co-workers, loved by his neighbors. And so we want to make sure that I'm hearing myself twice. Yeah, it is. Can you talk for me? Is it still happening? Testing one, two. Yes, it's still happening. I'm going to deal with it. This is more important. Let me just say this. It's really important that everyone know who the victim is. His name is Karan Irvine, he's a father, a husband, he's a dedicated worker at Con Edison. And so that's our first job. Our first job is making sure that we protect his name, protect his legacy. And then whether or not there's some potential theory of liability, that's secondary. And that's something that we'll deal with, but that's why we're here. And Attorney White, yesterday we were all in court and so we could listen to the prosecution lay out part of what happened, because there are plenty of surveillance cameras on the George Washington Bridge in both directions that captured everything that happened. And the prosecution was saying that the two cars collided. They were both entering the GW Bridge. It was about 7, 7, 15 on Wednesday night, and the two nearly collided. After that happened, the prosecution is saying that the retired cop then continued to aggressively and these are the prosecutor's words, aggressively tailgate Mr. Irvin, and then sped up beside him and then fired the shot, the shot going into his car and hitting him on his back and his neck, killing him. And then the retired cop continued just traveling across the GW Bridge and went home to Rockland County that night. Yes, that's correct. And that's, I mean, listen, that is the reason why we were there to advocate that this officer be remanded. Because we deemed him a flight risk. The fact that he committed this act, right? And then continued to leave the scene of the crime, didn't call 911, didn't call for help, right? But left the scene, indicates to us that he was a flight risk. And we gave this argument to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, but they chose not to go with it. They chose to ask for a million dollars bail. The other thing is, we were concerned because we know that he works for a billion dollar company, right? We know that he owns a house in Havistrow. So those things tell us that he's gonna be able to make a million dollars bail. Okay, now you're talking about the retired cop. He is the director, they said yesterday in court that he's the director of security for a luxury limo company, possibly associated with a hedge fund. Is that correct? What I have on information and belief is that he is the Director of Security for QVT Technologies, which is a billion dollar investment fund. That's what I believe, that's what I've been told based upon the information provided by law enforcement. Okay, and then you met with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office yesterday before this court proceeding. Number one, you did ask them to ask him to be held without bail to remand him. They instead went with $1 million bail. They also spoke with you about the charges being dropped. Originally, when the NYPD arrested him on Wednesday, they charged him with murder. The DA's office now going with first degree manslaughter. What do you make of that? Why would they downgrade the charge? So I can't tell you why the Manhattan District Attorney's office would downgrade the charge. I can tell you why I think downgrading the charge was the wrong decision. So when there is the allegation that they almost get into an accident and then my client drives off and is driving and then this person chases him, tailgates him for a period of time and then pulls up beside him and then shoots him and kills him. That tells me that this is more than manslaughter. That tells me that this is murder in a second degree, at least. And so our position was that he should have been charged with murder in a second degree, but that's not our decision to make. That's the Manhattan District Attorney's decision to make. And they are going to be presenting this case to a grand jury on Monday. And if the jury indicts him, then he will appear in court after that, and he will enter his plea in this case. You also talked at length yesterday as well at this press conference saying that you believe that he is getting the retired police officer, the narcotics detective, is getting preferential treatment. Talk to me about that. What are the issues that are popping out to you that make you feel like he's getting preferential treatment? So I don't just advocate for people in my community. I'm also a criminal defense attorney. And so I have clients who are not even charged with murder, who are remanded pursuant to a bail argument in court. So the fact that this person is accused of running someone down on a bridge, shooting and killing them in cold blood, and also risking the other lives of other people on the bridge, right? Tells me that this person is a flight risk. That argument wasn't made. And so that argument wasn't made for this person. And it's a class issue as well, because the notion that he can make a million dollars bail, and that's what was asked for, tells me that there's a certain amount of access that's being provided for this person. That's preferential treatment. The way that he was able to come into court, his appearance in court, he didn't look disheveled, he didn't look like he spent the night in jail, that's preferential treatment. And so there are multiple steps that we observed yesterday in court where we see that he's receiving preferential treatment. And the NYPD, they told us yesterday, They said that they were able to track him down within 24 hours of this fatal shooting happening. And again, it was because of those cameras on the GW Bridge because they can ding your license plate and then they track the license plate to a company vehicle that he was driving. And so then they went to that company on Wednesday. He was working. And then that's when when they engaged with him and then ultimately arrested him. Um, so when you talk about, um, preferential treatment, do you feel that the, um, police department in some way is giving him preferential treatment as well? Because you guys did talk about that yesterday at the news conference that he was being handled differently than say the average person who is not a city employee would be handled if the same circumstances occurred. Yeah, so what I talked about yesterday is that there are enough cameras on the George Washington Bridge that police were able to identify the vehicle and whose vehicle it was relatively soon after this incident happened. However, this person, even after being identified, was allowed to go home, eat dinner with his family, and then go to work the next day. And then come into the precinct for questioning, that would have never happened, had this person not been former law enforcement, right? And so, the regular civilian would have been apprehended that evening, they would have been brought in for questioning and then arrest. And you also raised the issue as well, there aren't any pictures, no video of the suspect. Whereas there usually is some type of social media presence, or the NYPD normally will escort the suspect from a precinct to a police vehicle to take them to central booking. But in this case, that didn't happen. So then, yeah, right, in this case, that didn't happen. There was no what was called a perp walk. There was no opportunity for the press to get a photo of him. And so what I did is yesterday at the press conference, I asked you guys in the press, do any of you have a photo of him? His identity was being protected. And so his identity was being protected and he's the person who is alleged to have committed this crime. However, the victim, his picture is all over, his picture is being taken from social media the same way. And so from our perspective, his social media presence and anything about him had been scrubbed. And it's important to note that because it's not like he had never been in the press before, right? In 2020, he was involved in a shootout that was covered by multiple news outlets, including the New York Times. But still, I wasn't able to get a picture of him. Right, yeah, I wanna give our viewers some details about what happened in 2020. 2000. He was on the job at the time. He was in our car. I'm sorry, 2000. Yeah, that's OK. In 2000. And his family owned a laundromat in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and two two suspects apparently tried to rob the place. He was there. He was off duty at the time. He had a service revolver on him because cops are allowed to carry them. It's legal. And there was a shootout between him and the two suspects. They were both injured as well as he was injured as well. He was shot in his hand. Um, what ended up happening shortly thereafter though, is a complaint related to this shooting was filed with the civilian complaint review board here in the city, the CCRB, which is where when anybody has a complaint about a police officer, this is where they file that complaint. So they opened an investigation into this, um, narcotics officer, um, and they were investigating this claim. And then within about 18 months he retired. Well, once you retire, then the investigation effectively is over it doesn't go anywhere so you raised questions yesterday about well wait a minute did he retire because they probably were going to find something with him and that he was going to be found guilty of something um that was an issue that you raised but something else that was pointed out to me was that um law enforcement is saying that uh the reason that he retired is because he was shot in his hand and he couldn't do his job any longer And that it's coincidental that the CCRB was also investigating the claim. What's your take on that? So, I think that my charge yesterday was my charge to the press, right? As the fourth estate, as the kind of like the last line of defense for our democracy, was to investigate and interrogate this notion that he was shot in his hand. One, let's take a look at the shooting itself, right? Was he allowed to moonlight as security for his family's business? I don't know, that's a question of fact, that's something to determine. Was the shooting in defense of something or was it a dispute about something? That's a question of fact. was he under investigation for something else, including that shooting? That's a question of fact. The CCRB investigation, once it begins, why not see it through if you're not guilty of anything? And so we have all of these questions, and we want answers to those questions. And so those are the things that I was raising yesterday at the press conference. One of the things that you and your co-counsel also said yesterday was that because he was retired in YPD and there were never any of that investigation came to an end with the CCRB, that he is allowed to carry his service revolver. And in fact, it was on him when he was arrested on Wednesday. And they also found two legally registered guns in his home in Haverstraw in Rockland County. So, you made the point yesterday that if maybe that investigation had moved forward in 2000 and he did not retire in 2001, that maybe he wouldn't have been on the road with a service revolver on Tuesday night of this week and that shooting never would have happened. That was a point that you were making yesterday as well. I think my co-counsel, Nick Liakis, what he was saying is that if there's an open investigation, an officer should not be allowed to retire with his service weapon until that investigation is closed. So if you need to retire while an investigation is pending, fine, right? But your ability to keep your service weapon should be affected. And I think that that's our position, is that there was an open investigation in 2000, and he retired in the middle of that open investigation by CCRB, and was able to keep his service weapon. Now, fast forward to 2026, right, and that service weapon is used to kill an innocent driver. Right, I also need to make the point here too for our viewers, so that they understand how the civilian complaint review board works. Just because a complaint is filed doesn't mean that eventually they find any wrongdoing with a police officer. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So sometimes the complaints are justified and validated and in other situations that they are not. I just want to put that out there so our viewers understand how the CCRB works. So at this point, Attorney White, where do things stand as of today and moving forward? So the family is getting ready to prepare for services for Karan Irvine. And his children are getting ready to say their farewell to their dad. I also wanna make this note that Tuesday night, Karan Irvine's wife Patricia was preparing dinner and waiting for him to come home. And they're so close that they have each other's locations on their phones. She was tracking his location so that she'd be ready for when he got home. And she says to me, she says, Keith, his location just stopped moving on the bridge. I didn't know what to think. And that is something that I can't get out of my head. The anticipation that your loved one is coming home, so much anticipation that you're tracking their location on, you know, on their phone, and then it just stops, and she will never see him again. And that's because someone chased him down, ran him down, and gunned him down. And that person is being offered bail by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. And Attorney White, do you know when the services are? Have they been planned? The services are being planned, but they're not public. Okay. It's going to be private? Private. Yes. Okay. Is there anything else at all, sir, that you would like to get across that I have not asked you? No, I just want, you know, I just want you guys in the press to focus on, you know, this amazing human being, Karana Irvine, his family and his children, what they have to deal with. Attorney Keith White, I really do appreciate you taking the time today. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you.