Metro

Two NYPD cops want CCRB probe over 2012 Harlem shooting death tossed

By
Priscilla DeGregory
Published Feb. 4, 2021
Updated Feb. 4, 2021, 5:35 p.m. ET

Two cops involved in the shooting death of an emo𒈔tionally disturbed cabbie want a Civilian Complaint Review Board investigation thrown out as the probe is coming over eight years later, new court papers show.

NYPD Detective Edwin Mateo and Lieutenant Michael Licitra — who were present when knife-wielding Mohamed Bah was shot down in his Harlem apartment by Mateo on Sept. 25, 2012 — say the CCRB told them in November that they had to appear for an interview, according to a M☂anhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Thursday.

The men were “shocked” to hear this since they didn’t know the CCRB — a police watchdog group — was looking into it since the incident was over 8 years old and had already been investigated by federal prosecutors and internally by the NYPD, all finding no criminal responsibility by the cops.

Further, a grand jury declined to indict the officers on Nov. 26, 2013 after the Manhattan District Attorney’s office presented it with a case, the court papers say.

Mateo, “discharged his service weapon in self-defense believing his life and the lives of his fellow officers to be in danger resulting in the death of civilian, Mohamed Bah,” the court papers claim.

The events of Bah’s death “have been exhaustively investigated by ‘other agencies’ who, unlike the CCRB, had a legal duty, obligation and authority to investigate the September 25, 2012 incident,” the court papers claim.

NYPD Detective Edwin Mateo shot knife-wielding Mohamed Bah (inset) in his Harlem apartment on Sept. 25, 2012.
NYPD Detective Edwin Mateo shot knife-wielding Mohamed Bah (above) in his Harlem apartment on Sept. 25, 2012.

Even a long drawn-out civil case brought by Bah’s family has since been settled for nearly $2 million.

“The court should declare as invalid the CCRB’s illegal and untimely attempt to investigate such incident,” the suit claims.

Licitra and Mateo still haven’t appeared for their interviews and are asking the court to invalidate the CCRB’s investigation.

The CCRB d🧸id not immediately return a request for comm𒊎ent.

The suit comes the same day that Police Commissioner Dermot Shea signed an agreement with the CCRB to follow a new “discipline matrix” — a set of guidelines for how to disciple officers for internal violations.