July 18th, 2012 Officials comment on Grand Jury’s decision
The following is a statement from the Council of the City of Newburgh:
The Council of the City of Newburgh acknowledges the difficulty of the Orange County Grand Jury’s deliberations regarding the shooting of Michael Lembhard. We also recognize that this was a community tragedy, and our hearts go out to the Lembhard family. The City Council will be considering whether additional investigation of this case should be pursued.
Although the decision has been rendered in the Lembhard case, the City Council will continue to look into what can be learned from this tragedy. We are committed to aggressively ensuring that a tragedy of this nature does not happen again.
The Police Department has already undertaken training in Cultural Awareness and Competency, and next week, community leaders, organizations, city officials and staff will participate in the first City of Newburgh Site Problem Identifying and Resolving Issues Together (S.P.I.R.I.T.) Forum, facilitated by the United States Department of Justice.
We also respect the work that our Police Officers do each and every day under extremely difficult circumstances, and we will continue to call upon our residents to work with our Police Department. |
