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Lawyer for family of Brandon Tate-Brown calls on prosecutor to reopen criminal case

The lawyer representing the family of Brandon Tate-Brown - the 26-year-old man shot by police late last year - on Monday called for the district attorney to reopen a criminal investigation into the Frankford man's death.

Police say that Brandon Tate-Brown reached for a gun in his car during a struggle with police who had stopped him for a traffic violation. Tate-Brown's mother likened her son's death to that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
Police say that Brandon Tate-Brown reached for a gun in his car during a struggle with police who had stopped him for a traffic violation. Tate-Brown's mother likened her son's death to that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez/Staff Photographer

The lawyer representing the family of Brandon Tate-Brown - the 26-year-old man shot by police late last year - on Monday called for the district attorney to reopen a criminal investigation into the Frankford man's death.

Brian Mildenberg said differences between initial police accounts of the incident and an internal report on the shooting made public last week warranted a second look at the case.

District Attorney Seth Williams said he did not plan to reopen the investigation.

"What happened was tragic, but not criminal," he said in a statement Monday afternoon.

The Police Department initially said Tate-Brown, who was killed during a traffic stop and ensuing struggle in December, had been shot as he reached into the passenger side of his car for a gun.

That account dovetails with one given to investigators by Sgt. George Ackerman, who spoke to Nicholas Carrelli, the officer who shot Brown, shortly after the shooting. He said Carrelli told him he fired as Tate-Brown was reaching for the gun.

Carrelli, per department policy, was not formally interviewed until March. In an internal interview, he told investigators he had shot Tate-Brown closer to the back of his car, as he rounded the trunk.

Carrelli said he had fired to prevent Tate-Brown from reaching the gun, wedged between the passenger seat and the center console of his car. He said Tate-Brown had attempted to retrieve it twice earlier in the incident.

Mildenberg, who has also filed a civil suit against the city, said those discrepancies should prompt Williams to reopen the case.

Williams said eyewitness interviews and physical evidence led him to decline to press charges in the case. He said Tate-Brown "was shot because he put two Philadelphia police officers and everyone who was at the scene that night in danger."

Mildenberg said Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey should also remove Carrelli and his partner from street duty.

"Based on the lies these police officers told, they must be taken off the street," Mildenberg said.

Ramsey said he did not plan to do so.

"The matter was reviewed and found not to be anything of a criminal nature in terms of the actions of the officers," he said. Now, a civil court will decide whether the city is liable in the case, he said - "that needs to play out in court."

Addressing differences between the initial account of the shooting and Carrelli's later interview, he said the department was working to "tighten up internal communication" and "update whatever's out there" during shooting incidents.

"We try to put as much information out as quickly as we can. But one of the downsides is, when there's preliminary information, there can be some differences and some changes," he said.

At Monday's news conference, Mildenberg said he did not believe "there was ever a gun that Brandon Tate-Brown had on his person."

"To believe that story," he said, "you have to believe the shooting officer," whose credibility he questioned. He said he believed DNA evidence found on the gun that matched Tate-Brown was the result of crime-scene contamination.

Ramsey said that was not the case.

"I am unaware of, nor do I believe there was, any evidence mishandled in this case," he said. "If [Mildenberg] is implying that gun was introduced [to the scene], there's nothing that I'm aware of that even remotely suggests that."

Tanya Brown-Dickerson, Tate-Brown's mother, wiped away tears at the news conference and said her son "loved life."

"Stop ignoring police brutality," she said. "It is real. It happens. And it should not be allowed.

"Accountability is all I ask for."