Killing of Gidone Busch

Did You Know?

• Busch's mother, Doris Busch-Boskey, filed a federal suit claiming Busch's civil rights had been violated.
• On June 5, 2001, the Justice Department declined to file charges, agreeing that excessive force had not been used.

Background

Gidone Busch was born to Norman Busch, a dentist, and Doris Busch, a divorce mediator, and grew up with a brother named Glenn in a comfortable suburban home in Dix Hills, New York. His parents later divorced, and Doris married Howard Boskey, a psychiatrist. In 1991, while a third-year medical student at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City, a routine urine test revealed he had IgA nephropathy, an immune system disease that could lead to kidney failure.

College years and mental illness

The diagnosis deeply shook him, prompting him to leave medical school. Searching for meaning, he read philosophy books and immersed himself in music. He then decided to pursue spiritual enlightenment within Judaism and moved to Israel. Over seven years, he shifted among various Jewish sects, starting at a conventional Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem, then Chabad, followed by a Na Nach yeshiva in Safed, and eventually returning to the more mainstream Breslov Hasidic group.

The diagnosis also triggered immobilizing depressions that later developed into serious mental illness. His mental health history included three involuntary commitments at a hospital on Long Island after making threats to his parents and showing signs of paranoid schizophrenia. On one occasion, he became agitated and kicked a hole in the wall of his room at his mother’s house, later saying he could not believe he did that because he loved the house where he grew up.

Borough Park

His spiritual quest led him to live on 46th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn, a neighborhood with a prominent Orthodox Jewish population. At times he enjoyed music or celebrating Shabbat with friends; at other times, when he neglected his medication, he would not look up from his prayer book or his food. In 1997, he entered a residential program for the mentally ill in Borough Park but checked himself out against doctors’ advice, who believed he could not live on his own.

He took computer training courses, planning to design web pages. He was often seen walking around talking to himself and wearing heavy clothes in midsummer. He obtained a claw hammer, called it his “staff,” carved the tetragrammaton on it, and danced with it in prayer. He meditated while playing loud music or prayed so loudly that neighbors complained.

Police shooting and death

On the afternoon of August 30, 1999, neighbors alerted police that Busch was playing loud music and dancing nearly naked in the street. By the time officers arrived, he had returned to his basement apartment with a homeless friend, Percy Freeman, and the two had been smoking marijuana. Busch waved a hammer at them; it might have initially looked like a flute. At 6:40 p.m., an anonymous caller reported that a man at 1619 46th Street was threatening neighborhood kids with a hammer.

When police got there, they told Freeman to leave. As he came up the stairs, Freeman said, "Don't worry about the hammer, it's a religious object," while officers tackled and handcuffed him. The police then requested the Emergency Service Unit, which was standard for incidents involving someone with mental health issues. They ordered Busch to come out, but he refused.

Officers entered the apartment and attempted to restrain him. By then, Busch had taken off his prescription glasses and might not have realized the people entering were police. He threatened them with the hammer and swung it once or twice. Officer Daniel Gravitch sprayed half an ounce of pepper spray into Busch's eyes.

At 6:48:20 p.m., Sergeant Joseph Memoly, who had just arrived, made a second call for the Emergency Service Unit. Busch was either pushed out or managed to get free. According to police, he then ran up a narrow stairway, hit Sergeant Terrence O'Brien several times on his left arm with the hammer, and pushed past other officers. On the sidewalk, wearing a tallit and tefillin, he held the hammer above his head.

Six officers formed a rough semicircle with their guns drawn, shouting at him—one "almost pleading" for him to drop the hammer. A single shot rang out, then a volley of twelve more from Sergeant Memoly and Officers Martin Sanabria and William Loshiavo, and Busch fell dead. Another account says Busch stepped forward, screamed while swinging the hammer, and kept advancing, striking a fallen police sergeant with the hammer when the shots were fired. At 6:48:27 p.m., Sergeant O'Brien radioed: "Perp down."

Reactions

After the killing, crowds of local residents filled the street, shouting “Justice” and sometimes hurling objects at officers. Many questioned why Mayor Rudy Giuliani had not traveled to Brooklyn to hear their complaints about police brutality. One person who saw the events remarked, “If I had been in their shoes I would have done the same thing.” City Councilman Noach Dear urged an inquiry, saying the police needed to review how they handle people with mental illness, though he acknowledged no simple solutions existed. The next morning at a City Hall press conference with Giuliani and Jewish leaders, Police Commissioner Howard Safir reported that seven independent witnesses had confirmed Busch struck Sergeant O’Brien with the hammer.

Civil proceedings

The Busch family's lawsuit against the NYPD went to federal court in October 2003. A jury sided with the police on November 17, 2003, clearing the officers and the city of liability. But on September 9, 2004, federal judge Sterling Johnson Jr., who had once been a police officer, threw out that verdict.

He cited serious problems with the officers' account of the shooting and their credibility, ordering a new trial. The family chose not to retry the case, citing health issues, and announced this decision on August 27, 2006. They still seek justice for Gidone.