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Gov. Andrew Cuomo has granted the state attorney general’s office the authority to investigate Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove for his handling of the fatal shooting of a DWI suspect by a Troy police officer last April.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sought authorization from Cuomo last year after information surfaced that a Troy police investigation of the shooting was incomplete when Abelove presented the case to a grand jury that cleared the officer who fired the shots. The grand jury took action less than a week after the shooting.
“Real questions have been raised here, and we owe it to the community and the victim’s family to get to the bottom of them,” said a person familiar with the decision by Cuomo’s office.
At the time Abelove presented the case to a grand jury, the attorney general’s office was reviewing whether to investigate the shooting under an executive order Cuomo signed two years ago giving Schneiderman the authority to intervene in cases in which unarmed citizens are killed during police encounters. Schneiderman’s office said Abelove did not notify them that he was putting the case before a grand jury.
The attorney general’s ongoing investigation of the shooting death of 37-year-old Edson Thevenin is examining whether the incident unfolded as police officials described — with the officer firing eight shots through the windshield of Thevenin’s Honda sedan after Betboo the vehicle allegedly pinned the officer’s legs against his police cruiser.
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