Tuesday,
February 11, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 24
Fox News, NY: New York City police apologized for mistakenly accusing a teenager of a fatal shooting at a Brooklyn parade, then failing to retract the false allegation for nearly five months, despite knowing it was incorrect.
In a statement sent to news outlets Sunday, the NYPD said an image it circulated on social media of Camden Lee, a 15-year-old Brooklyn resident, “mistakenly stated that he was wanted for the fatal shooting” at the West Indian American Day Parade in September.
“The NYPD should have immediately corrected this misstatement,” added the department’s new chief spokesperson, Delaney Kempner. “We apologize for the error and will continue to seek justice for the victims of this shooting.”
The apology followed reporting by The Associated Press on the NYPD’s monthslong refusal to retract the allegation, which spurred death threats against the teenager and questions about the department’s policies for correcting misinformation.
Even after police quietly deleted their online accusations and privately conceded that Lee was not a suspect in the killing, the NYPD had refused to walk back the allegation, ignoring desperate pleas from Lee’s family.
In its updated statement, the police department said Lee was a “person of interest” in the shooting, which remains unsolved, since he was “on the scene before, during, and after the incident.”
The apology, a rare admission of fault by the NYPD, comes as the new police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, has vowed to restore trust in a department rocked by turmoil and turnover. Last month, the NYPD agreed to reform its social media practices after an independent monitor highlighted unprofessional posts by some executives and other online misrepresentations.
