33 Elected Officials to Commissioner Tisch: Uphold the Charges Against Wayne Isaacs

November 13, 2025

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch

1 Police Plaza 

New York, NY 10038 

RE: DCT’s erroneous recommendation to dismiss charges against NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs

Dear Commissioner Tisch,

We, thirty three city and state elected officials, write with the utmost urgency to implore you to reject NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs’ motion and NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado’s recommendation to dismiss all charges against him for killing Delrawn Small and ensure that Isaacs’ disciplinary trial moves forward as scheduled on November 19–21, 2025. Officer Isaacs’ attorneys' rationale for why the charges should be dismissed defies both logic and the law and is contradictory to arguments they have made to defend him in related cases.

On July 4, 2016, NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs shot and killed unarmed Delrawn Small in front of his then four-month-old baby, teen stepdaughter, and girlfriend. For over nine long years, through two mayoral administrations and seven police commissioners, Mr. Small’s family has been fighting for basic accountability, only to be met with delays and obstructions by the NYPD and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA, Isaacs’ police union) every step of the way. 

Dismissing the charges against Officer Isaacs after Mr. Small’s family has fought for nearly a decade to ensure he faces some level of accountability would be a gross miscarriage of justice and would send a dangerous message about the direction of police accountability as New York enters a new mayoral administration.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) recently notified Mr. Small’s family that, in response to a motion from Isaacs’ PBA attorneys, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado is recommending dismissing all charges against Isaacs. This comes on the heels of the PBA’s second failed attempt to provoke Provision 2 of the NYPD-CCRB M.O.U. and evade the CCRB's prosecution – both of which were rightfully denied by you and by former Commissioner Sewell.

In recommending the dismissal of charges, DCT Maldonado erroneously sides with Isaacs’ attorneys’ claims that this case falls outside of the CCRB’s jurisdiction because Officer Isaacs was off-duty and not acting as a police officer at the time that he killed Mr. Small. 

However, for years, Isaacs' attorneys have sought to defend him by arguing that he was acting in his capacity as a police officer when he killed Mr. Small and a federal court and the Attorney General's Office have found his actions to be such as well.

Isaacs was prosecuted for murder by the New York State Attorney General’s Office under Executive Order 147, which gave the AG the power to “investigate, and if warranted, prosecute….the death of an unarmed civilian… caused by a law enforcement officer.” The AG asserted jurisdiction over the case, regardless of Isaacs’ being off-duty, because he was acting as a police officer. Additionally, during the criminal trial, the defense’s case rested heavily on the fact that Isaacs employed his NYPD training when he shot Mr. Small three times.

Furthermore, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, Isaacs v. City of New York, 17-CV-4315, Isaacs’ attorneys argued that the City was required to indemnify him for killing Delrawn Small because his actions were “within the performance of his duties and within the scope of his employment as a New York City Police Officer.” The Court agreed, and ordered the City to indemnify him. 

Isaacs and his attorneys cannot both claim he was acting as an NYPD officer to defend him from liability and secure indemnification in federal court, and now claim he was not acting as an officer to evade discipline. Unfortunately, DCT Maldonado was fooled by these antics. We urge you not to be.

The DCT’s recommendation is additionally erroneous because it is the role of the Deputy Commissioner of Trials to determine whether or not police misconduct has occurred, not to rule on CCRB jurisdiction. The NYPD already affirmed the CCRB’s jurisdiction to prosecute the case against Isaacs when it served the CCRB-substantiated charges and specifications to him in 2021.  

As elected officials who are committed to building a safer and more just New York, we are deeply alarmed by Officer Isaacs’ self-serving legal distortions and the DCT’s faulty stance on this matter. Mr. Isaacs murdered an unarmed Black man in front of his family and failed to provide medical aid. It’s unacceptable that Mr. Isaacs still has not faced a discipline trial in over nine years. To end the disciplinary process at this stage would be cruel to the family and a disservice to New Yorkers. It would also undermine CCRB’s oversight authority and your own stated commitment to accountability.

As complaints of excessive force by the NYPD climb to the highest level since 2013, and after public outcry over your refusal to fire Lt. Jonathan Rivera for the killing of Allan Feliz, we and New Yorkers are watching whether you will allow police violence with impunity to continue.

Our request is simple and non-negotiable: Reject Maldonado’s recommendation, uphold the charges, and allow the CCRB prosecution to proceed on November 19–21, 2025, without any additional delay or interference.

Respectfully,

cc: Mayor Eric Adams; Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani; Civilian Complaint Review Board Executive Director Jonathan Darche