NYPD Sergeant Hugh Barry has been acquitted of all charges, including murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2016 fatal shooting of a Bronx woman.
Barry shot 66-year-old Deborah Danner when she charged at the 9-year-veteran of the department swinging a baseball bat. She was reportedly having a mental health ‘episode.’
“I just see the bat swinging and that’s when I fired,” he told the judge on Tuesday. “I’m looking at this bat that can crack me in the head and kill me,” according to CBS New York.
Barry’s defense included explaining that use of a Taser was not appropriate when being attacked with a baseball bat. His lawyer also said during closing statements that prosecutors were trying to criminalize a difficult police judgement call, according to CBS New York.
Patrick Lynch, head of the PBA said, “there is no victory here today, only relief that justice has been served and a good man who was doing a difficult and dangerous job has been exonerated.”