Probie wife's explosive charge: 'Racist' FDNY killed my husband; training targeted minorities
Updated Thursday, February 12th 2009, 9:09 PM
Jamel Sears died Nov. 10 after completing a training exercise at the Fire Department's training academy on Randall's Island.
Sears' family mourns his death. His wife is charging in a lawsuit that the FDNY used brutal training techniques to weed out minorities, killing him in the process.
A probationary firefighter who died at a training session was the victim of an FDNY effort to keep blacks out of the department, a lawyer for his widow charged Thursday.
Jamel Sears, who collapsed Nov. 10 at the Fire Academy, died after he was subjected to a more strenuous physical regimen than FDNY hopefuls - most of them white - had undergone in the past, lawyer Ken Thompson said.
Sears' widow, Sherita, filed a notice of claim Feb. 6 informing the city and the FDNY she plans to bring a $10 million wrongful death suit.
"This was the largest class of blacks and Latinos in Fire Department history," Thompson said. "Why did the department decide for the first time to implement this particular training?
"We're saying we believe there was a racial motivation there."
Sears, 33, was part of the class that began at the academy in July 2008. The group included the most minorities in the FDNY's history, with more than one-third of the 297 members either black, Hispanic, Asian or female.
Thompson said he does not know what Sears was doing when he crumpled to the ground. New requirements - such as carrying 100 pounds of equipment a certain distance within a short amount of time - put extra pressure on the recruits, he said.
In addition to the racial component, the Sears filing claimed an FDNY instructor ordered other trainees not to help Sears as he died before their eyes. It took EMS more than 15 minutes to reach the Fire Academy on Randalls Island, the court papers said.
An FDNY spokesman said its policy is not to comment on pending litigation. The city corporation counsel's office said it had not received the paperwork.
Sears, a Bronx resident, was a U.S. Navy veteran and the father of two: 7-year-old daughter Jya and 11-year-old son Mahlek.
His wife is a city police officer. His Harlem funeral was packed with cops and firefighters, who heard Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta hail the aspiring fireman.
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