Late one spring night last year, a traffic stop in Westchester County turned deadly.
On June 5, New Rochelle police pulled over a vehicle for failing to signal. The passenger, 24-year-old Kamal Flowers, ran away from the stop and an officer followed, police say.
At some point, Flowers brandished a gun, police claim. The officer opened fire, killing Flowers.
The circumstances of his death sparked protest in the lower Hudson Valley. But, in a long-awaited report on how often New York police officers use force, Flowers' death was absent from the fatality column.
In fact, Flowers’ case is one of a number of high-profile incidents in which police used force that were not reported by local police agencies to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The state entity was tasked with compiling a new, annual report on how often New York officers use weapons, Tasers and pepper spray or otherwise took forceful action against a subject.