Justice for Delrawn Small

On July 4, 2016, 37-year-old Delrawn Small was shot and killed by NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs in front of his 4-month-old baby, teen stepdaughter, and girlfriend. Delrawn was killed just one day before Alton Sterling was killed by police in Louisiana and two days before Philando Castile was killed by police in Minnesota. Officers in both cases are no longer with their respective police departments, while more than four years after Delrawn’s killing, Isaacs is still employed by the NYPD.

Initial accounts from Isaacs and the NYPD falsely claimed that Isaacs was physically assaulted, but surveillance video, released days after these claims saturated media coverage of the killing, discredited such accounts. The footage showed that Isaacs shot Mr. Small, who was unarmed, within seconds; in fact, Isaacs unholstered his gun and rolled down his window to shoot Mr. Small from his car. After shooting Mr. Small, Isaacs left him to bleed to death on the street offering no emergency aid and never even communicating that he had shot someone in his call to 911.

While Isaacs was charged and prosecuted for murder by the NYS Attorney General’s office, he was defended by powerful police union attorneys and acquitted at trial. Isaacs should have been fired but has faced no meaningful discipline for killing Delrawn Small.

In October 2020, the CCRB substantiated charges against Wayne Isaacs, the NYPD stopped blocking the CCRB and served those charges on Isaacs in January 2021, but his discipline trial has yet to be scheduled.

Help uplift the demands of Delrawn’s Family: 

  • Demand the NYPD to immediately schedule the disciplinary trial of Wayne Isaacs. 
  • Demand the Mayor and the NYPD fire Officer Wayne Isaacs for killing Delrawn Small.
 

News on Delrawn Small

NY court reseals records in case of off-duty NYPD officer who fatally shot Delrawn Small

03/29/2025
Gothamist
On Wednesday, March 26th, the Appellate Court ruled to overturn Judge Danny Chun’s decision to unseal the records from NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs’ murder trial for killing Delrawn Small in 2016. Victoria Davis and Victor Dempsey, Delrawn Small’s sister and brother, are denouncing the court's decision and calling for Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Tisch to take immediate action to fire Officer Isaacs.
more