Conviction Is Reversed Of Officer Who Shot Boy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
An appellate court reversed for the second time the assault conviction of a former police officer yesterday, ruling that he did not act unreasonably in 1999 when he accidentally shot an unarmed teenager as the boy tried to flee.
Mark Conway, who has since retired, had been found guilty of a misdemeanor following the shooting of 16-year-old Dante Johnson. The officer, who was seeking to question Johnson about a robbery, had grabbed the teenager’s jacket sleeve from a moving police car when his gun discharged.
Johnson has been arrested several times on unrelated charges since the shooting, according to the police. He is now imprisoned at Attica for robbery, according to the state corrections agency.
Mr. Conway’s conviction had been vacated in 2005 and then reinstated last year by New York’s highest court.
