By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 9/23/2026
Category: NYPD Accountability / Civil Rights / Public Safety
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A 54-year-old man died after an NYPD officer took him to the ground during a foot chase that began with an alleged open beer can in a Manhattan park. New York’s attorney general says the evidence does not support criminal charges against the officer.
Shelton Ennis died on June 26, 2025, after Officers Marc Leandre and Karl Yelenic approached him in Riverside Park near West 136th Street. The state Office of Special Investigation released its report on September 22, 2026.
Body-camera footage reviewed by investigators showed the officers repeatedly asking Ennis for identification so they could issue a summons. Ennis said he did not have identification, gave a false name and date of birth, and offered to go to his nearby apartment to retrieve identification.
The officers said they could not verify the name and told Ennis they would take him to the precinct. Ennis ran. The footage showed Yelenic chase him and take him down from behind by wrapping his arms around Ennis’ upper body. Both men fell forward.
Ennis was face down, unresponsive and making loud snoring sounds when Leandre reached him, according to the report. Officers handcuffed him and called for ambulances. Emergency medical workers arrived at 10:13 p.m. Ennis later became pulseless in the ambulance and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital at 10:49 p.m.
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. An autopsy found a 1⅜-inch tear in the wall of Ennis’ right ventricle caused by the blunt impact to his chest when he hit the ground. Blood filled the sac around his heart and stopped it from pumping properly. The medical examiner told investigators the injury would be fatal within minutes without immediate surgery.
A homicide ruling describes how a death occurred. It does not by itself establish that a crime was committed.
The attorney general’s office concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Yelenic used unlawful force or acted with criminal negligence or recklessness. Investigators said the officers could make a custodial arrest after they could not identify Ennis and that New York law permitted necessary force to carry out that arrest after he fled.
The report said there was no evidence that Yelenic intended to injure Ennis. It also concluded that death was not a foreseeable result of grabbing a fleeing person from behind.
The encounter began as enforcement of a violation-level open-container law. Minutes later, Ennis was fatally injured. That sequence raises a public-accountability question beyond the criminal charging decision: how a low-level quality-of-life encounter escalated into a death.
The report does not identify any NYPD discipline, policy review or operational changes following Ennis’ death. It also does not say whether the department examined how officers handled his medical distress while waiting for emergency responders.
OSI released the officers’ body-camera footage with the report. Under state law, the office must publish a report when it investigates a death caused by police and decides not to seek charges.
Sources
New York Attorney General: Report on the Death of Shelton Ennis
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