NAACP Legal Defense Fund senior community organizer Victor Dempsey remembers his brother Delrawn Small as a charismatic gentle giant. Today, a decade after off-duty NYPD officer Wayne Isaacs killed the unarmed 37-year-old in a 2016 road encounter, Small remains well-loved. Over the years, his family has continued to fight for an internal department disciplinary trial of Isaacs for misconduct charges substantiated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB).
Three mayoral administrations and seven police commissioners later, Dempsey and fellow advocates announced last week that a disciplinary trial against Isaacs was on the calendar for early next year: Jan. 13, 2027. It will look at the charges dating back to 2020, and could lead to termination.
“Every family member who’s directly experienced this understands it’s not a choice,” Dempsey told the AmNews. “I didn’t ask for this life. I didn’t ask to be an advocate. I lost my loved one — I lost my brother, the guy who taught me how to be the man you see today … he was a protector, a provider, [and] someone you can go and talk to when you have your own problems — he’ll help solve them for you.”
Isaacs faced and beat second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter charges over killing Small in 2017, in the first criminal case involving a police killing, prosecuted by the State Attorney General under an executive order from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The incident occurred on the July 4th weekend in East New York, Brooklyn, after a road confrontation that ended with Isaacs shooting Small from his car.
Small’s family filed a misconduct complaint against Isaacs with the CCRB in 2018 after the acquittal. The board, which serves as the city’s independent police watchdog, substantiated those charges in 2020. Three police commissioners, including the current one (Jessica Tisch), refused to bury the case. As with most serious police misconduct charges, Isaacs faced an internal trial about whether the officer violated department guidelines. Regardless of a ruling, the NYPD commissioner gets final say on discipline.
While the CCRB’s efforts to unseal the State Attorney General’s criminal prosecution against Isaacs to obtain key evidence succeeded initially, it lost on appeal. The process led to significant delays in the case, while Isaacs remained with the department. Still, a trial date was set for last November.
However, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosmarie Maldonado suggested the department drop the charges against Isaacs late last year, removing the originally scheduled dates off the calendar. Tisch ultimately overrode her recommendation and moved forward with the disciplinary trial. Maldonado will serve as the ostensible “judge,” overseeing the charges in January as CCRB prosecutors and police union-appointed lawyers square off, which Small’s family and supporters remain concerned about.
“Hopefully, we can get this thing going,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams last week, “but I really think we should rethink who’s overseeing [it].”
This most recent holdup stems from debate over whether Isaacs, who was off-duty at the time, “acted in a manner that invoked his police powers.” For the officer, it is frequently a distinction of convenience. Isaacs and his lawyers convinced Maldonado that he was a private citizen during the shooting, which almost allowed him to evade the internal trial. However, when Small’s family sued him years ago, he managed to inversely argue his case as an NYPD officer to a federal judge, resulting in the city fronting taxpayer money toward his settlement payout.
Tisch previously defied Maldonado while under former Mayor Eric Adams, ironically to prevent another’s office termination for killing someone, but she now faces more pressure from police accountability advocates, who want the first-year administration to live up to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialist campaign promises.
Last week also marked a deadly road confrontation involving former NYPD detective Victor Romero allegedly shooting Con-Ed worker Koran Irvine on the George Washington Bridge, according to reports.
