A road-rage showdown left an unarmed Brooklyn driver dead and an off-duty cop under investigation for answering two punches with three point-blank gunshots.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a probe into the early Monday shooting of Delrawn Small, 37, whose girlfriend and three kids watched in horror as the lethal confrontation unfolded.
"Words can't begin to explain the pain I feel right now," girlfriend Zaquanna Albert posted on Facebook. "... My heart aches for this man and my son who will never remember his dad."
Delron Dempsey (aka Smalls Dempsey) was shot and killed by an off-duty NYPD police officer on July 4, 2016 in Brooklyn.
(Facebook)
Delrawn Small (aka Smalls Dempsey) was shot and killed by an off-duty NYPD police officer on July 4, 2016 in Brooklyn. Pictured: Mugshot taken April 6, 2009. DCPI
Delrawn Small was shot and killed by an off-duty NYPD cop in Brooklyn.
A warrant was obtained to search the 2002 Nissan Altima belonging to Wayne Isaacs, 37, a three-year NYPD cop. The Brooklyn resident pulled his service weapon and opened fire at Small, an ex-con, from the front seat.
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Small's relatives and pals described the dead man as a pleasant guy.
"Even if the man did attack you, roll up your window, drive off -- hold yourself to a higher standard," said Jermaine Gabriel, 40. "Yeah, you can get upset. But to kill a man?"
Small, his girlfriend, their 4-month-old son and her two daughters were driving through East New York to meet up with his older brother Ali Dempsey for the Fourth of July.
A witness said the rapidly escalating confrontation began when Small, driving a 2016 Kia, felt he had been cut off by Isaacs shortly after the cop's 4 p.m.-midnight shift had ended.
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Relatives of Delrawn Small, who was shot to death by an off-duty cop following an early morning road rage incident in Brooklyn, set up a makeshift memorial.
(Jesse Ward/for New York Daily News)A video camera captured Small, who was two cars in back of Isaacs, exiting his car when both vehicles reached a red light, according to cops, who refused to release the video.
A person familiar with the probe said Small's girlfriend told investigators he had three drinks earlier at a barbecue, was easily angered, and rebuffed her when she begged him not to get out of his car.
A woman answering Small's girlfriend's phone Monday night said she wasn't available to comment.
"All she wants you guys to know is that he was a great dad," the woman said.
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The scene of the fatal shooting Monday morning.
(Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)Small, of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, approached the driver's side window and punched the cop twice as he sat in the vehicle -- once in the face and another time in the mouth, a police source said.
That's when the cop shot Small twice in the torso.
One witness, however, recalled a different time line.
The off-duty cop shot and killed Delrawn Small, a 37-year-old father of three.
"Delrawn and the cop's car almost hit each other. And Delrawn got out of the car and the cop just jumped out and started screaming. He just shot (Small) right there on the street," said construction worker Lloyd Banks. 43. "(He) was unarmed. His (girlfriend) and kids were still in the car. They saw everything."
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Small, known as "Fu," died shortly after midnight at the intersection of Bradford St. and Atlantic Ave.
The New York Daily News published this front page on July 5, 2016.
(New York Daily News)The officer was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was being treated for minor injuries and later released.
A man at Isaacs' Brooklyn home Monday night confirmed he was involved in the road rage incident before declining further comment and quickly closing the door.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department is offering full cooperation in the state probe.
"We are comfortable, based on the preliminary investigation, that this was a road-rage incident," he said.
Bratton, citing the ongoing probe, said it was too early to say whether the cop had been justified in his actions.
But a police source said the officer will need to explain what led him to use deadly force.
Officers huddle at the scene where the officer fatally shot Small.
(Vic Nicastro for the New York Daily News)Small had a rap sheet that included 19 arrests and three terms behind bars.
Small finished parole on his latest arrest for assault in 2013, jail records show.
Isaacs was accused in a 2014 lawsuit with a false arrest in which the suspect was "punched, kicked and struck several times in the head and body."
The plaintiff also charged that one of the arresting cops called him a "n----r" before the case was settled for $20,000.