By Sasha Gonzales
[email protected]
A Bronx man thought to have accidentally killed himself with an NYPD officer’s gun Easter morning was actually shot by the officer, who prosecutors criminally charged Tuesday, authorities said.
Martinson Afari Yeboah, 28, formerly assigned to Housing Police Service Area 7 in the Bronx, was arraigned on second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Bronx Supreme Court, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Justice Margaret Clancy set bail at $100,000 bond or $25,000 cash. An attorney for Yeboah, who has since bene fired from the NYPD, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yeboah initially told authorities Frederick Afoakwah, 21, had picked up the 9-millimeter handgun that Yeboah placed on a coffee table inside Afoakwah’s Mosholu Parkway apartment April 21. He said Afoakwah was inspecting the gun when he accidentally fired a bullet into his neck.
Afoakwah was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
But on Tuesday, Bronx prosecutors revealed that an autopsy showed the fatal bullet wound was not self-inflicted.
After the shot rang out, the victim’s father and cousin came out of their bedroom and saw the victim dying, at which point Yeboah told them there had been an accident, prosecutors said.
Yeboah did not call 911 until the victim’s father urged him to do so, prosecutors said. He then went to his apartment, where he ditched his gun and changed his shoes, prosecutors said.
Instead of going back to the victim’s apartment to perform life-saving procedures, Yeboah allegedly went to the building’s lobby to wait for first responders, prosecutors said.
“The victim, who was friends with the defendant, was recklessly killed by a single gunshot near the neck,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “The defendant was an NYPD Police Officer for approximately one year at the time of the incident, which occurred when he was off-duty. He allegedly did not seek immediate help and a young man died.”
Yeboah is due back in court Jan. 15.