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NJ attorney general releases body cam footage following fatal Paterson shooting
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 16, 2023
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New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 16, 2023
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Authorities on Thursday released body camera footage of the fatal police shooting of community activist Najee Seabrooks in Paterson, N.J. in early March.
The hours of video – released by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin’s office – show the moment Paterson police officers shot and killed Seabrooks, 31, on March 3 at his home after he called 911 for help during a mental health crisis. When the officers arrived at the apartment, Seabrooks had locked himself in the bathroom inside with knives, and also claimed to have a gun, according to the attorney general’s statement.
The press release marked the first time law enforcement gave a detailed account of what happened that day.
According to Platkin, Seabrooks went back and forth between saying he would cooperate and making threats to himself and the officers. In video footage, an officer can be heard pleading with Seabrooks to come out with his hands up so he could talk to his mother and go to the hospital. Police then fire their weapons.
“I’m sure she doesn’t want to see you like this,” the officer says to Seabrooks, who at that point of the footage, has been opening and closing the door and peering out as officers surround the bathroom, flashing lights in his direction. Seabrooks is later seen running out of the bathroom.
“Drop it,” one officer says, and discharges his weapon. Two members of the Paterson Police Emergency Response Team – Officer Anzore Tsay and Officer Jose Hernandez – shot and struck Seabrooks, according to the attorney general.
When Seabrook’s body falls to the ground in the video footage, officers surround him. They’re heard talking about taking knives out of his hands.
Najee Seabrooks, a violence intervention specialist with the Paterson Healing Collective, was shot and killed by police in an incident at his home on March 3.
New Jersey Violence Intervention and Prevention Coalition
A spokesperson for the Paterson Police Department did not immediately return a request seeking comment. The incident remains under investigation, the attorney general said.
The shooting has outraged local advocacy groups, with dozens calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Paterson Police Department’s use of force, which has been marked by excessive use of force, corruption, and violence.
In the hours after the footage was released, community advocacy groups including New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Black Lives Matter Paterson and Paterson Healing Collective — a hospital-based violence intervention program Seabrooks belonged to – held a press conference and rally outside of 200 Federal Plaza in Paterson. The event was planned before it was known the footage would be released.
“If someone has a firearm and they're pointing it to you, when they say, ‘We're here to take care of you, everything's gonna be fine,’ that doesn't compute with them having a firearm pointed at them,“ said Yannick Wood, director of the criminal justice reform program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. “We need to analyze the moment before police officers even entered into that location, when Patterson Healing Collective-trained mental health violence interventionists were actually on the scene, who actually knew Najee Seabrooks. They were prevented from entering into that scene.”
Members of the Paterson Healing Collective have since said they were not allowed to assist him that day. A nearby hospital also said a psychiatric team that was created to be deployed during such incidents was never called.
ACLU of New Jersey Executive Director Amol Sinha condemned the shooting.
“Several members of the Paterson Healing Collective were on the scene and pleaded with the police to let them intervene, but their requests were repeatedly denied,” Sinha said. “Instead, Mr. Seabrooks was shot and killed. We must make every effort to prevent the unnecessary escalation that happens far too often when police take the lead on these calls for help – it will save lives.”
In a statement on Thursday, Nicole Rodriguez, president of non-partisan think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, called on state and local lawmakers to “act with urgency so mental health crises are met with trained professionals, not armed police, and that people are connected to the care they need.”
“What outcome should we expect when someone in crisis is met with police armed for war with their guns drawn?” Rodriguez said in a statement. “Our system failed Najee, just as it continues to fail our Black and brown neighbors who put their lives in jeopardy when they call 911 for help.”
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new jersey
Catalina Gonella
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