At a news conference outside the district attorney’s office on Thursday, Mr. Graham’s father, Frank Graham, said, “Everything just seems dark.”

Speaking before two dozen protesters and several politicians, the father said: “We have to ask ourselves this question: ‘Had Ramarley been white, would this have happened? Would they have run in a white person’s home?’ ”

Image Ramarley Graham in 2012.

The turn of events is all the more surprising because Bronx juries tend to be far more skeptical of police actions than juries elsewhere. About 16 officers are currently under indictment there on charges related to a widespread ticket-fixing scandal that has also cast a pall over State Supreme Court in the borough, as defense lawyers cite the scandal to suggest that the police cannot be trusted to testify truthfully.

District Attorney Johnson said in a statement: “We are surprised and shocked by the grand jury’s finding of no criminal liability in the death of Ramarley Graham. We are saddened for the family of the deceased young man and still believe that the court’s dismissal of the original indictment was overly cautious.”

For a time it had appeared that Officer Haste would be the first New York City officer to stand trial in criminal court for a fatal shooting in the line of duty since three officers were tried — and acquitted — in 2008 for the shooting of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a Queens club.

The shooting of Mr. Graham provoked widespread outrage amid allegations of racial profiling and criticism of the aggressive tactics that led the police to pursue him and force their way into his apartment after finding the door locked. Anger over the shooting is memorialized even in Google’s mapping function: the street view of Mr. Graham’s home on East 229th Street shows a white fence thickly decorated with votive candles and posters criticizing the Police Department (one compares it to the Ku Klux Klan).