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New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation said on Friday, Sept. 30 a Town of Wallkill officer will not face charges in the Saturday, June 12, 20221 shooting death of Orange County resident Christopher Van Kleeck, age 31, in Middletown.
Following a thorough investigation, including interviews with witnesses and a review of physical evidence, photographs, dashboard camera footage, and civilian security camera footage, OSI concluded that criminal charges are not warranted for the officer involved in this case, the Attorney General's Office said.
According to the investigation, Van Kleeck had a history of mental illness and was well known to the Town of Wallkill Police Department. On prior occasions, his family members called the police when he made threats or became violent, and there were instances when Van Kleeck became violent with Wallkill officers.
On June 12, 2021, Van Kleeck’s mother called Orange County Crisis Call Center requesting help after he began behaving erratically, the investigation found.
Van Kleeck grabbed the phone from his mother and told the operator not to send anyone and threatened to “take out” any police officers sent to the house, according to the report.
The report said the operator contacted the town of Wallkill Police, and officers were dispatched to the house. The dispatcher warned over the radio that Van Kleeck had threatened to harm responding officers.
At around 3:30 p.m., a Wallkill officer, who had been present at two prior confrontations with Van Kleeck, responded to the call. As the officer pulled up to the house, he saw Van Kleeck outside, chasing his father with a knife in each hand, the Attorney General's Office said.
The father was running towards the patrol car, and just before he reached the car, the father turned sharply out of Van Kleeck’s path, moving behind a parked trailer. Van Kleeck continued running directly towards the patrol car with the knives still in both hands, the report said.
Van Kleeck crossed directly in front of the car and was running towards the driver’s side when the officer fired his service weapon through the windshield three times, striking Van Kleeck once, the report stated.
The chase across the lawn was captured by nearby civilian security cameras, and the shooting was captured by those same security cameras and the dashboard camera in the officer’s car.
The officer and additional responding members of the Wallkill Police removed the knives from Van Kleeck’s reach, called for emergency medical services, and began life-saving measures, the Attorney General's Office said.
Emergency medical personnel arrived at 3:43 p.m. and brought Van Kleeck to Orange Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:14 p.m.
Under New York’s justification law, a person may use deadly physical force to defend against the imminent use of deadly physical force by another. To convict a person of a crime when the defense of justification is raised at trial, the prosecution must disprove justification beyond a reasonable doubt, the office added.
Based on the law and the evidence, under these circumstances, a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer was justified, and OSI determined that criminal charges could not be pursued against the officer, the Attorney General's Office stated.
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