The New York correctional officer on trial for killing a teenager was scared, lawyer says

An off-duty New York correctional officer on trial for shooting and killing a teenager who hit him with a gel bead fired from a fake gun feared for his life and acted in self-defense, his lawyer told jurors decided his fate. But prosecutors said the officer “overreacted” and fired the fatal shot because he felt disrespected.

Dion Middleton, 48, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Raymond Chaluisant, 18, 21, 2022, came this week during closing statements in Middleton’s trial. If convicted of the most serious charge, he faces 25 years to life in prison.

According to prosecutors, Middleton shot Chaluisant in the face, then drove away in his car, slept at his girlfriend’s house for several hours and went to work the next morning, whereupon he was arrested. The bullet fired by Middleton pierced Chaluisant’s cheek and lodged in his neck. The teenager was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.

“You can be angry with someone,” Justin Siebel, senior investigative counsel for the New York attorney general’s office, said in a closing statement Wednesday. “But you can’t shoot someone because you’re mad at them.”

Middleton, a firearms instructor for the city’s Department of Corrections, was suspended without pay after the shooting, according to a prison system spokesman. A judge set bail at $1 million.

Middleton’s attorney, Joey Jackson, told jurors Tuesday that the officer was walking to his car outside his home near Morris Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway when he felt something hit his back. He said Middleton believed he had been involved in a drive-by shooting and drew his own concealed firearm for his own protection.

Middleton fired one shot, hitting Chaluisant, who was sitting in a nearby car.

“This is a tragedy,” Jackson said. “It’s not a crime.”

During his lawyer’s hour-long closing statement on Tuesday, Middleton sat in the courtroom with his shoulders hunched and his chin bowed, occasionally tapping his fingers on the table. His loved ones crowded onto two rows of benches behind him. A handful of Chaluisant’s relatives sat across the aisle.

Jackson said Chaluisant and a friend were driving around in a stolen car firing bullets from a pellet gun when they saw Middleton running and decided to target him. It wasn’t a real gun, but Jackson said it posed a real danger. He showed jurors a warning printed in an instruction manual that said the gun was “not a toy” and could cause serious injury.

Jurors viewed body-worn camera footage of a police officer responding to the scene. It showed the officer opening the door and a large, neon orange object falling from the passenger seat onto the road. Chaluisant had been playing with a bead blasting device that looks like a colorful military-style rifle and fires gel beads instead of bullets.

While the devices are illegal in New York City, bead blasting devices have been trending on TikTok this summer, prompting police to repeatedly warn the public against using them.

“They had a problem with that air rifle this summer,” the lawyer said, referring to the police. “Why? Because they’re dangerous.”

Jackson said Middleton believed he had been hit by a bullet fragment and that a real bullet could soon hit him if he didn’t act quickly. He also said the officer lived in a neighborhood where shootings were common and was concerned that the people he had supervised in city jails might try to hurt him.

A prank went wrong

Prosecutors painted a completely different picture. Siebel of the attorney general’s office said Chaluisant and his friend were not in a stolen car. He said that the “stab” Middleton later told police on his back was from the bead blaster and that Middleton knew he had not been shot with a real bullet.

Siebel said the bead emitter was a “distraction” and held it up in a plastic bag to show jurors. The real weapon, he said, was Middleton’s gun.

“The gun could kill someone. It killed someone. It killed Raymond Chaluisant,” he said. “It’s a toy.”

Siebel described the shooting as a prank gone wrong. He said Middleton became angry when he felt something hit his back and played surveillance footage that showed him turning and walking toward the car. The prosecutor said Middleton was not afraid but shot Chaluisant because he felt he was being mocked.

Siebel also highlighted Middleton’s shooting skills. He showed jurors copies of the Department of Corrections officer’s firearm qualification tests, which he had repeatedly passed with various types of weapons.

The prosecutor showed photos of the items police found in Middleton’s car after the shooting, including boxes of ammunition, a shirt with a gun on it and copies of a magazine about rifle shooting. He called Middleton a “trained shooter.”

“When he aimed at Raymond’s head and fired, he knew what he was hitting,” Siebel said.

But Middleton did not flag down a police car or call 911 after the shooting, he added. “He had no intention of ever coming forward,” Siebel said.

A representative of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association declined to comment outside the courtroom. Middleton and Chaluisant’s relatives also declined to comment.

The attorney general’s office is prosecuting the case under a state law that requires a special unit to investigate all killings by police and correctional officers, including off-duty incidents. Since the law went into effect in 2021, the office says it has filed charges against eight officers nationwide, including five in New York City.

Middleton is the first correctional officer to be charged under the law.