Editor’s note: The following story contains details and videos of a man in mental distress killed by police after a standoff. The story and videos may be disturbing for some individuals.
On the morning of March 3, police arrived at Mill Street in Paterson, answering a 911 call about someone in distress.
The person was later identified as Najee Seabrooks, 31, a high-risk interventionist with Paterson Healing Collective. Seabrooks had barricaded himself in a bathroom in his apartment while going through an apparent mental health crisis. Police negotiated with him for several hours before they shot and killed him.
Now recordings of the 911 calls from that day and video from body cameras worn by police officers show in detail what happened in the hours between those first calls for help and when Seabrooks died after being shot by police there to help save a man threatening to kill himself.
New Jersey’s attorney general’s office released the recordings Thursday as calls grow for broader inquiries into the Paterson Police Department’s operations.
The irony of that day was that the Paterson Healing Collective was on the scene and they were trained to de-escalate situations like these, said Teddie Martinez, one of Seabrook’s colleagues, during a rally days later protesting the killing. During the standoff, Martinez was texting with Seabrooks, who wanted to see his colleagues. Martinez said that an officer told him they weren’t allowed to talk to Seabrooks. Social justice advocates from BLM Paterson, Equal Justice USA, Salvation and Social Justice, People’s Organization for Progress, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, New Jersey Police Perspective, ACLU New Jersey and others have all called the killing “avoidable.”
“He deserved care from members of the collective and mental health professionals. Instead, he was shot and killed by police,” tweeted ACLU New Jersey after the recordings were released Thursday.
Before the recordings were released, BLM Paterson coordinator Zellie Thomas told NJ Spotlight News, “It doesn’t matter what happens on this body-cam footage. It doesn’t matter if he had a knife, if he had a weapon, if he was swinging things around. It doesn’t matter. We already knew he was in a mental health crisis. The officers knew he was in a mental health crisis.”
Calls for federal investigation
“So none of that validates you still shooting and killing him. The police approach was the wrong approach, period,” said Thomas.
Thomas and other advocates have called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Paterson Police Department and the killing of Seabrooks, saying Paterson has had a history of police misconduct.
The attorney general’s office said Thursday that its own investigation is ongoing.
Seabrooks made several calls to 911 the day he died, asking for help and sounding unsure about the officers on the scene. The attorney general’s office said that Seabrooks also told officers he had two knives and a gun at some unspecified time during the morning.
According to various members of the Paterson Healing Collective, Seabrooks was texting them and asking to see them. They arrived outside the Mill Street apartment building, but said an officer told them they were not allowed to enter.
The following is a timeline, which includes video excerpts, of what happened March 3 based on the recordings released Thursday and on reporting by NJ Spotlight News since Seabrooks was killed.
The timeline
2:00 a.m. Seabrooks arrives at an apartment on Mill Street in Paterson, according to what his family would later tell Paterson Police Department members. They told police that he locked himself in the bathroom with some knives.
7:43 a.m. Paterson police officers arrive at Mill Street, responding to a 911 call of a person in distress. The person is later identified as Seabrooks. According to the attorney general’s office, police spoke to family members when they arrived, who said that Seabrooks was “hallucinating and behaving erratically.” They told police thet he may have been experiencing a “bad reaction to something he smoked.” The family asked police to send an ambulance.
8:06 a.m. “It’s my first time ever seeing him like this,” one family member tells an officer.
8:07 a.m. A police officer named Sgt. Lillian Sanchez identifies herself and tries to talk to Seabrooks through the bathroom door, sharing that she is also from Paterson. Seabrooks asks Sanchez for identification. Sanchez replies that it’s sewn to the uniform, and she can’t slide it under the door.
“I’m not here to assume or to judge you. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. I’m trying to have you understand that we’re here for your well-being,” Sanchez said.
Paterson police officers and EMT talk to Najee Seabrooks for the first time
8:11 a.m. Sanchez tells Seabrooks through the bathroom door, “I need for you to come out, and come out on your own free will, or unfortunately we’re going to go a different route. We’re going to go a different route. I’m as clear as a glass of water. I’m not here to play games with you.” Police ask him to come out with his hands in the air.
8:12 a.m. A family member, who identifies herself as his mother, asks Seabrooks through the door why he’s “doing this.” Audio appears redacted after this. His mother asks him to open the door. “You cannot…let something bad happen to you,” she says.
8:22 a.m. Outside the apartment, Seabrooks’ mother speaks to another officer, telling them that her son works for Paterson Healing Collective. The officer responds that they know about the group. The officer asks if Seabrooks has any history of mental illness, and she said no. The officer tells her that they have everything recorded on the body-worn camera for everyone’s safety, and that “hopefully” law enforcement could negotiate with Seabrooks.
Another police officer arrives, talks to Najee Seabrooks
8:28 a.m. Another officer appears at Mill Street. He enters the apartment and stands near an officer carrying a shield and then tells Seabrooks through the door, “You’re not in trouble whatsoever,” saying people are there to help. The officer tells Seabrooks he called someone whom Seabrooks later said was his mentor. The officer says he can’t let the mentor in there unless Seabrooks comes out, and he will see if the mentor can help escort him to the hospital. Seabrooks says he doesn’t want to go to the hospital.
8:32 a.m. The officer tells Seabrooks it’s OK if he took something, and that he wasn’t sure if that was true. He tells him that Seabrooks will be OK if he comes out and “nothing occurs after.”
9:40 a.m. A trained negotiator arrives. According to the attorney general’s office, “two police sergeants, EMS workers, family members and trained negotiators spoke to Mr. Seabrooks in an attempt to get him to come out from inside the bathroom to get help,” for one hour and 32 minutes. The office also said Seabrooks “would briefly open the door.”
10:15 a.m. According to the attorney general’s office, “a loud crash was heard from inside the bathroom and water began flooding the apartment. Mr. Seabrooks was cutting himself with the knives and was bleeding.”
10:26 a.m. Officers attempt to break into the bathroom when they hadn’t heard from him in a while. The door may have been barricaded.
According to the attorney general’s office, “While they were speaking with Mr. Seabrooks, officers observed knives in his hands and Mr. Seabrooks told the officers he had a fully loaded gun and threatened to shoot people. Mr. Seabrooks threw various items at the police and started a fire in the bathroom. Mr. Seabrooks threw an unknown liquid in the face of one of the officers, who was taken to the hospital, treated and later released.”
Seabrooks also said, “he was going to die in the bathroom and take one of the officers with him,” according to the Attorney General’s office.
12:28 p.m. Body-worn camera footage shows an unidentified officer holding a shield and pointing a gun at the bathroom door. “Officer 4,” as labeled by body-worn camera footage, tells Seabrooks to release what is in his right hand. “That’s enough,” the officer says. Seabrooks cries and asks the officers not to shoot him. The officer says that no one will do that.
12:30 p.m. “Stop cutting yourself,” Officer 4 says to Seabrooks. “Just stop, stop. Let us help you … Naj, we don’t want you to die, man.” The officer again tells Seabrooks that no one will shoot him. “Just stop, stop,” the officer says. Seabrooks refers to killing something (audio is difficult to hear). “You don’t want to do that, it’s not worth it. You got a long life ahead of you, you don’t want to end it like this,” the officer replies.
“You keep doing that to your arm, we can’t help you,” the officer says, and again tells Seabrooks to stop.
‘Officer 4’ tells Najee Seabrooks to ‘drop the knife’
12:32 p.m. Officer 4 keeps saying “stop,” remarking that they need backup. Another view of the footage shows Seabrooks standing near a doorway with a bloody knife in his hand, apparently slashing himself. Officer 4 continues to tell him to stop. “You got to be feeling really crappy right now. Let’s get you help,” Officer 4 says. “Drop the knife,” says another officer. The video footage appears to show the doorway is surrounded by officers with shields, helmets and guns.
12:34 p.m. Seabrooks puts a knife to his neck. Officer 4 asks if he wants to talk to anyone, and Seabrooks says his mom. The officer says they could bring him to his mom. “Naj, you want that help, right?” says another officer.
The moments before and after the shooting
12:35 p.m. Officers yell, “Drop it,” and shots are heard. According to the attorney general’s office, Seabrooks “lunged” at police with a knife in his hands. “Two members of the ERT, Officer Anzore Tsay and Officer Jose Hernandez, discharged their weapons striking Mr. Seabrooks,” the attorney general’s office said. In one view of the body-worn camera footage, Seabrooks appears in a doorway before shots are fired.
12:35 p.m. Moments later, footage shows several officers in another room surrounding the ground, where Seabrooks is not in view. Officers ask each other if they are all good. Multiple officers alert each other that Seabrooks still has the knife in his hand. Another says they need to put him in handcuffs.
12:36 p.m. “Get ALS in here ASAP,” says another officer, calling for advanced life support. He later also says that Seabrooks is handcuffed. The attorney general’s office said in its news release that emergency personnel “rendered first aid at the scene.”
12:51 p.m. Seabrooks is brought to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, where he is pronounced dead.
