On Friday, the office of the state attorney general released police radio transmissions as well as video footage from police body-worn cameras related to the fatal shooting by police of Andrew Jerome Washington at his home in Jersey City on Aug. 27. Police were responding to a report of Washington being in a mental health crisis.
The police body-camera footage shows the intense moments as the fatal situation unfolded after officers arrived at Washington’s home just before 3 p.m. and Washington can be heard telling them to leave. At approximately 3:18 p.m., an officer can be seen holding up a gun to the door behind a shield. Another officer comes into view at 3:27 p.m. with a taser. A minute later they get the green light to break open the door. The sounds of the taser and the gun being fired can be heard.
Washington was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. “It was heartbreaking to watch,“ Pamela Johnson, founder and executive director of the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County, said of the footage. ”I just feel like every time I watched it, I did not see where some training had come into play, where there was actually going to be a good resolution. … I didn’t feel that something else was going to happen.”
“What went wrong is they didn’t send trained social workers who know how de-escalate,” said Larry Hamm, chairman of People’s Organization for Progress. “What went wrong was this young man Andrew Washington was in his apartment himself. He wasn’t a threat to anyone. What went wrong is that they seemingly rushed through the situation. … I am of the firm believe that this situation did not have to end in death” if it had been handled differently.
Washington’s death remains under investigation.
