A Bronx man convicted in a 1972 triple murder who sued NYU for passing him over as a campus security guard has landed a gig with the NYPD’s internal watchdog, The Post has learned.
Ronald Davidson is training to be an investigator with the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which looks into claims of police misconduct – a move that has riled police unions even as the candidate says he long ago turned his life around.
“He was convicted of three homicides, so he should be disqualified from doing any investigations involving the NYPD and its members,” Vincent J. Vallelong, head of the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association, said in a statement.
“He also should not have access to sensitive materials involving victims,” he continued, noting Davidson was scheduled to be a second seat in a case against a sergeant last week until the union protested it.
Davidson was just 17-years-old when he killed three people, after the trio tried to rob him at knifepoint one August night on a New York City beach, according to a 2016 letter he penned to the parole board.
“The combination of anabolic steroids, the flowing of adrenaline and my fear that my life was in danger and that I was going to get killed or at the very least seriously injured by these three men, led me to the worst decision and action of my life: To shoot these three men multiple times, thus ending their lives,” he wrote.
He said the crimes have haunted him since.
They’ve also allegedly torpedoed his job prospects, such as when New York University revoked a security officer position after a background check turned up his earlier convictions, the school’s student newspaper, The Washington Square News, wrote in December 2022.
Police union officials said they’re ready to push back.
“We will protest every time he is scheduled to sit in on a case against one of our members,” Vallelong said. “If CCRB wants to hire him, they should do it for another position.”
Patrick Hendry, the head of the NYPD PBA, echoed his comments.
“Police officers should not be subjected to the judgment of someone who was convicted of three murders,” Hendry said. “Moreover, the NYPD should not be turning over mass amounts of sensitive law enforcement information to someone with this kind of criminal record.
“If this individual has any role in CCRB’s investigations, it not only jeopardizes our members’ rights — it puts public safety at risk. It’s up to the NYPD to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Sources say Davidson is physically present in the CCRB offices and shadowing other investigators — but has not had contact with NYPD members.
The CCRB, for its part, declined to comment on Davidson’s case.
“The agency recently hired a new class of investigators, and per New York State and New York City human rights laws, the CCRB does not discriminate in the hiring process based off of prior criminal history,” an agency spokesperson said in an email.
It’s unclear why Davidson, now in his late 60s, wants a security or law-enforcement-related job. The Post was unable to reach him for comment.
Davidson sued NYU in 2022 after the school revoked the security position — and produced a bevy of letters and documentation to support his claim that 43 years of prison had rehabilitated him.
One letter called him a “role model in his community” and another said Davidson is “diligent, committed, and exhibits a strong work ethic.”
“To keep Mr. Davidson incarcerated is a waste of human potential and public tax money,” Professor Christian Parenti of John Jay College of Criminal Justice wrote in his letter, adding that the ex-felon is “completely rehabilitated.”
Former probation officer and justice studies professor Edward Sieh described Davidson as a “thoughtful person who deeply regrets the events that brought him to prison” and said he “no longer poses a danger to the community.”
The lawsuit is still pending, court records showed.
Davidson took courses from SUNY and Syracuse University while locked up, earning a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Community and Human Services.
After his 2016 release, he finished two security guard courses, obtained certificates of fitness from the FDNY and took re-entry courses at John Jay — and got an apartment through the city’s affordable housing lottery program.
He was forthcoming about his crimes in his 2016 parole letter, saying the killings stemmed from an argument over stolen outboard engines and boats at his parent’s house.
That night — Aug. 21, 1972 — he and another man went to a bar to talk to the three victims about storing and selling the illicit pieces, he said.
At one point, the victims noticed Davidson had nearly $400 in cash on him.
Later that evening, they attacked him to try to get the money — and Davidson said he pulled a gun during the beach beat-down and shot them dead.
“This happened so very quickly and automatically, yet I have relived this episode of my life countless times,” Davidson wrote. “Not one day has gone by that I have not thought of the events that took place that summer night in 1972.”
“I fully accept responsibility for my actions and the crimes that I committed,” he continued.
