A New York state police officer will retire with his pension after he called 911 and claimed he engaged in a shootout with a group of Black youths.
Officer Sean McKown, made a 911 call on the to report he exchanged gunfire with a young Black man near his home in Elizabethtown, New York.
“A group of eight to 10 black males came around his property and words were exchanged after he questioned why they were on his property,” a dispatcher stated. “They told him off. They then returned for round two, more words were exchanged to which at that point gunfire was exchanged between both parties. Sean is uninjured, however is waiting for State Police response as they are on another call.”
State troopers did not find a crime scene.
McKown was discovered napping in his home and appeared to be intoxicated. McKown told the officers the gunfight occurred after he confronted a group of Black youths who were holding their phones in their air. He approached them three times to demand they get away from his property.
The troopers poked a hole in his story when they told him a neighbor’s surveillance camera showed him laying the gun down carefully.
The troopers stated McKown also denied being drunk but claimed he did not remember what he said during the 911 call. McKown has not been disciplined for the incident. The state troopers are not speaking publicly about the incident, and that the incident is closed.
McKown will be on sick leave until he retires sometime this month, and is a nephew of former Cohoes Police Chief William Heslin.
A letter demanding more aggressive accountability was signed by 700 people and delivered, but Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler admitted McKown’s alleged behavior is “unbecoming of a police officer,” but he insisted to the Times Union that retirement is the best option.
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