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Man In Stairwell With Fake Gun Arrested By NYPD: "I Could Have Been Dead"
By
Scott Heins
Published Feb 28, 2016
Modified Feb 28, 2016
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By
Scott Heins
Published Feb 28, 2016
Modified Feb 28, 2016
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A Youtube filmmaker who was arrested in the stairwell of a Kips Bay housing project during a video shoot has spoken out on the incident. Aaron Beam, 38, posted a video Saturday in which he stressed, "[T]he situation could have got ugly, it could have went both ways, I could have been dead, a boy couldn't have been here right now."
NYPD officers were in the middle of a vertical patrol of the Straus Houses on East 28th Street Thursday night when they came upon Beam and two others in a 25th-floor stairwell as they were filming a video scene and using a fake prop gun. "We ended up doing a little scene in there which had a prop gun involved," Beam said in the video. "The cops came and they saw the gun involved. It could have went left, they told me freeze and I put the gun down."
Beam was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, while his two colleagues, Rahman Soto, 30, and Jarod Nabors, 34, were hit with disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment, the Post reports. Weapons charges against Beam were later dropped once the police did in fact determine that his gun was a prop.
The three men had been filming an upcoming episode of the online series Heres 2 The Throne, which tells the story of "two best friends with an unbreakable bond, on the same path, looking for the same glory." The series' Youtube channel has amassed over 2,000 subscribers and more than a million total views.
"We're not gangbangers," Beam clarifies in the new video addressing Thursday night's stairwell scare. "I'm actually an owner of my own company."
Tensions surrounding NYPD vertical patrols are especially high. Two weeks ago, Officer Peter Liang was found guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting Akai Gurley, an unarmed 28-year-old man, in a darkened stairwell of the Pink Houses in East New York. Speaking to the Post, Beam's mother, Catherine Hassel, praised the officers that happened upon his staged video shoot. "Sometimes cops shoot and they don't think," she said. "I'm so glad they used their heads this time and nobody got shot."
Beam himself also praised the vertical patrol cops in his videotaped statement. "I want to thank the NYPD for being cordial and having restraints," he said.
However, Beam took issue with the way he and his crew have been treated in the media. In a printed headline, the Post referred to the Here's 2 the Throne crew as "Vidiots" and labeling the group "the three stooges." But he sees things a different way: "I know you all see what's going on—it's all in the papers, it's all on the internet, but we didn't really get to tell our side of the story as far as what happened...It could have went left, but it didn't...I had the gun, the prop gun, which is what we shoot with," Beam said.
"This is just going to put us on the map more...all press is good press," he concluded. Beam confirmed that the police are still holding his video equipment as evidence, but assured viewers that his Youtube series will continue once the police investigation has concluded.
"[I]n no way, shape, or form do we go into this with negativity or negative thoughts, trying to do something with the props trying to run down on people, and do all of that. Nah, that's just not what we're here for."
Tagged
Aaron Beam
nypd
Stairwell
Straus House
Vertical Patrol
Scott Heins
Scott Heins is a freelance photo and video journalist based in New York City, and a frequent contributor to Gothamist + WNYC. His work often centers around labor rights, housing, and policing. In 2018-2019 he traveled to four states while covering a wave of public school teachers strikes, with work featured in The New York Times, The Intercept, Getty Images, Splinter, and Bloomberg Photos. Scott is a dues-paying member of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project.
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