Trial begins in trial of NYPD officer charged in apparent Brooklyn road rage shooting

CYPRESS HILLS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Opening statements began Monday in the trial of an NYPD officer accused of fatally shooting a man in an apparent case of road rage.

Surveillance video appears to show off-duty officer Wayne Isaacs shooting Delrawn Small as he approached his car in East New York in July 2016.

The prosecutor said Small was unarmed at the time of the shooting and had nothing in his hands.

"This defendant pulled out his gun and fired three bullets into Delrawn Small's body," Prosecutor Jose Nieves said. "The defendant pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger, not once, not twice, but three times. In one second he shot Mr. Small three times, and ended his life in front of his family."

Isaacs then walked back to his car and called 911 to allege that he was attacked, the prosecutor said.

"There was an eye in the sky," Nieves said. "That eye was a surveillance camera. Delrawn Small's death is going to play out in front of your eyes."

Nieves went on to state the case that there was no time for anything to have happened that would legally justify Isaacs' decision to shoot Small.

But Isaacs attorney insists the defendant did nothing wrong in the beginning, middle or end. He said this was no road rage incident.

"He's furious, he's angry, he's intoxicated and he assaults Officer Isaacs," Defense attorney Stephen Worth said. "It was not a temper tantrum, it was an assault."

Worth said this is, in fact, an easy, clear-cut case.

"Anyone, any reasonable person, would have done exactly what Officer Isaacs did," he said.

This is the first trial prosecuted by the New York Attorney General, who was appointed as special prosecutor in an executive order signed by the Governor for cases where unarmed civilians are killed by police officers.

Isaacs is charged with second-degree murder. He was a police officer in the 79th Precinct.

Authorities believe the officer and victim, a father of three, may have been engaged in a road rage incident for several blocks.

Isaacs faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.