As The New York Times reported, New York's Finest have taken out another young black man. Early Saturday morning in Brooklyn, NY, Officer Richard Neri was performing a "vertical patrol" with his partner. As Neri opened the door to the roof of an apartment complex, he ran into 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury, who was entering the stairwell down. Apparently, Neri was surprised, fired his gun, and shot Stansbury dead.

The surprise in the aftermath has been the response from the City. Mayor Bloomberg already showed last year that, unlike some mayors, he prefers not to blame the NYPD's victims for their own deaths. However, for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to immediately say the shooting appears unjustified is truly remarkable.

Of course, Kelly's statements were not met with praise by his underlings. Nor by cop-lovin' Stanley Crouch.

All the information released thus far points to Officer Neri being completely to blame for this tragedy. (The DA's office was interviewing another witness today.) This article says "Officer Neri made statements suggesting he had been startled by the door's opening and involuntarily fired a shot." Well, accidents happen, but when people die, one cannot just brush them aside. Neri may have been surprised to find someone opening the door from the other side. That is not an excuse for killing someone. I don't doubt that dark rooftops in Bed-Stuy are scary places. That's why we don't give guns to every citizen for personal patrol. That's why cops are supposed to earn their badges. Bullets cannot go flying whenever someone is startled. A criminal investigation is underway. We'll see if Neri receives special treatment because of his uniform.