VIDEO: Dashcam captures NJ police shooting of black man
Shooting “victim” Reid previously served 13 years for shooting at NJ State Troopers
The Bridgeton NJ police department has released dash camera video of the shooting of violent felon Jerame Reid by two of its police officers during a traffic stop, reports NBC 4 news in New York. Both Reid and the officer who first shot him, Behame Days, are black. Days’ partner, Officer Roger Worley, who is white, also shot Reid after the gunfire began.
The South Jersey Times reports that last summer Officer Days was involved in the arrest of Reid for heroin and cocaine possession, and resisting arrest. The same source reports that Reid has previously served thirteen years in prison for shooting at New Jersey State Police Officers.
Given Day’s previous experience in arresting a non-compliant Reid it seems quite possible that he would have been aware of Reid’s history of shooting at police, knowledge which would naturally have contributed to his reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm at the hands of the once again non-compliant suspect.
The video begins with the suspect vehicle, in which Reid was the passenger, making a rolling left turn through a stop sign (0:06) while directly in front of the patrol car occupied by officers Worley (driving) and Days. This immediately initiated the traffic stop (0:22), which begins amiably enough with a typical verbal exchange (0:36), but degenerates into Days drawing his service weapon within 22 seconds of his first words with the suspects (0:58).
Interestingly, about 14 seconds into this conversation (0:50), until which Days had been speaking with the driver, the officer says “‘sup, man,” which suggests to me that he’d recognized passenger Reid from their prior encounters. This would, naturally, have heightened Days’ concern of danger, given Reid’s known history of deadly violence towards police.
The instant Days draws his weapon (0:58) he begins repeatedly shouting at Reid “show me your hands,” the repetition obviously indicating non-compliance. The driver of the suspect vehicle, Leroy Tuft, more prudently puts his empty hands and arms out the drivers side window. Tuft is immediately held at gunpoint by Officer Worley (whom, the trainer in me feels obliged to note, demonstrates excellent trigger finger discipline), while Days continues to verbally engage the persistently non-compliant Reid.
From the moment Day’s weapon is drawn until the shots are fired, only Days’ voice is intelligible in the recording:
0:58 [Gray’s weapon drawn]
Show me your hands!
1:00 Show me your f*cking hands!
Show me your hands!
Don’t f*cking move!
Don’t you f*cking move!
Don’t you f*cking move!
1:05 Get ’em out of the car Rodg [Worley], we got a gun in his glove compartment.
1:10 Dong’t you f*cking move!
Don’t you f*cking move!!!
1:10 Show me your f*cking hands!
Show me your hands!
don’g you f*cking move1
Don’t you–
1:22 I tell you, I’m gonna shoot you!
You’re going to be f*cking dead!
I’m telling you!
You reach for something you’re going to be f*cking dead!
I’m telling you!
1:30 I’m telling you!
Keep you f*cking hands right there!
Ain’t your phone!
You reach for something you’re going to be f*cking dead!
He’s reaching, he’s reaching!
Show me your f*cking hands!
No you’re not, no you’re not, no you’re not!
Don’t f*cking move!
1:45 DAYS BACKS UP RAPIDLY.
1:46 REID EMERGES FROM CAR FACING DAYS, RIGHT HAND HELD BEFORE HIM CHEST-HIGH.
1:46 DAYS FIRES SIX RAPID SHOTS.WORLEY FIRES ONCE. REID FALLS.
1:47 GUN FIRE CEASES
Here’s a screen cap of the video at the moment Days begins firing at the advancing Reid:
That’s Reid on the right, extending his right hand towards Days, much as he likely did when he fired his gun at the New Jersey State Police prior to serving his 13 years in prison for that earlier offense.
A gun was recovered from the suspect car.
No news yet on whether USAG Holder intends to initiate a Federal civil rights investigation of Officers Days and Worley specifically or the Bridgeton NJ police department in general.
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Comments
Good shoot by Days, but I think his use of cuss words constitutes a possible civil rights violation requiring the immediate attention of our nation’s highest law enforcement officer, Eric Holder. Any chance Days or Worley are Jewish? That would really help Mr. Holder’s investigation. Make it a two-fer for the O Team.
I am no fan of any cop but my God, when you don’t do what they tell you with their gun in your face you are on your way to the morgue. What was this fool thinking about?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/22/dashboard-camera-video-shows-man-shot-by-nj-police-raising-his-hands/
Fascinating juxtaposition here. That’s a Fox link, but its an AP story.
Another case where a little compliance would have been the “self-preservation” route.
I’ll look forward to our LEO contributors’ stories of suspects who cooed soothingly that they were NOT doing exactly what they were doing, and how that turned out.
I wonder what part of “Don’t f*cking move!” Reid did not understand? Oh well, one less Obama son to think about.
Probably one less welfare check to pay, and one less 0bamaphone to worry about.
How does he “Not f’g move if he “shows him (his) hands?” Just askin’
Really?
Cop: Don’t f’ing move!”
Suspect shoves hands into his pockets.
Cop: “Show your f’ing hands!”
Easy, peasy.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
IN which case, Andrew, he has violated the LE’s order – he moved his hands. As you well know from your Ayoob instruction, LE’s should NOT issue contradictory commands to a suspect. Don’t move!! Get on the Ground? Right!! How about: “Hands out the window!! Hands out the window!!! Any ambiguity in that? No. Or, “Hands on the windshield!! Hands on the windshield! None there either. If his hands then go in the glove box, that looks to me like reasonable grounds for assuming he’s going to weapon, whether or not one is later found – furtive movement at least. Just my .02$
Naturally, the premise of my comment was that Reid was violating Days’ orders.
Whether Days commands were contradictory is entirely a function of the context of what Reid was doing.
Because we can’t see was Reid was doing, there’s no way to tell from the video whether Day’s orders were or were not contradictory.
I thought that was your initial point to which I responded.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Wazzup, Roy! (I’m at IAL under a diff nom de plume)
My Marine son is now a Paramedic near Raleigh, NC.
Based on Reid’s background and this event, it appears he was an aspiring cop-killer yearning to walk in “Mumia Jamal’s” footsteps. He met his destiny and, like hoodrats everywhere, he failed in his aspirations, unless he aspirated as he expired.
This event will save $ for NJ taxpayers who won’t have to pay for Reid’s lawyer and prison expenses, etc..
Reid’s homie was a lot smarter.
There should be a public trial, if only to highlight the unequal response from DOJ, press, and social protection racket. Their efforts to sponsor class divisions (e.g. “diversity”) need to be exposed for public scrutiny.
There was a trial in the Trayvon Martin shooting and the evil progressive fascists still insist that George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon.
I take your comment as sarcasm because we all know Days acted appropriately. Nobody should ever be put through what Darren Wilson has suffered. The fact that Days is black and thus won’t be persecuted is not a reason to suggest he be dragged over the coals anyway. Holder, obola, Sharpton, Jackson and their army of race-baiting handmaidens in government and law are the ones who should be put on public trial.
But you knew that. 🙂
my dsl so crappy I cannot watch right now but I am confused about something, he tells other cop to get people out of the car and tells people in car not to move?
wasn’t worley on same side of vehicle as reid or am I missing something?
He initially pulled his gun because there was a gun in the glove compartment. I kind of assume that the driver didn’t actually know there was a gun there or he forgot about it.
So the IDEAL situation here would have been the cop saw the gun, pulled his weapon and told them not to move. Then they would have taken the 2 guys out of the car 1 at a time and gone from there.
Instead, Reid apparently was doing shady stuff inside the car that didn’t involve him putting his hands where the officer could see him and then NOT MOVING, and both officers kept their weapons trained on him until he actually decided to comply (or they shot him, as it were).
Yep, the difference is readily apparent, look at the drivers actions, his hands get outside of that window with alacrity, when the cop draws his gun, that is the proper response.
IMHO you have NOT missed anything
To be honest you can’t really see anything. You see the driver still his hands out, but you don’t see the passenger do anything. He could have put his hands quietly on the dashboard, or he could have reached for the gun. You can’t really tell.
Nevertheless unless one of the other cops says something was wrong, I figure the whole thing will be OK for the cop.
Not to nit-pick but putting his hands on the dashboard with the glove box right below it would probably not be the best idea.
If you look between the seats, you can see Reid moving around. So its safe to say Reid was not quietly putting his hands on the dash.
Consider this: Reid is a PASSENGER in a car with a gun in the GLOVE BOX. Days knows Reid’s criminal history. It would not be unreasonable to believe or certainly suspect that the gun in the glove box belonged to the driver and that Reid, given his history that Days was aware of, had a separate weapon on him. Reid kept moving when Days kept telling him not to move and show his hands, so Reid created the conflict that he lost.
Maybe when Days told Worley to “get ’em out of the car”, it confused Reid, and he thought Days was ordering him out.
It’s always advisable to follow police directions precisely.
After they’ve just retrieved a weapon from the glove box six inches from your knee, drawn their weapons, and know you are on parole for shooting at cops, better be extra careful.
Good shoot. Move on. Preferably not blocking traffic or disrupting brunch.
Dead guy had a long violent history, and was likely one of the following at the time of the stop, any of which some punks are known to fight/flight over:
1. On probation/parole? vulnerable to violation & return to prison
2. He was a felon with a gun (see #1)
3. He may have had drugs (see #1)
4. He may have been riding with a felon (see #1)
5. He may have had bench warrants
Some folks may watch the video and think, gee, why start shooting at an officer over a stop sign violation when you’re not even the driver? Anyone on probation/parole or with warrants knows interaction with De Po Po often doesn’t go well and is best avoided. However, this thug knew he was going to jail, so he came out fighting.
Well, you are free NOW, motherfucker.
Being a felon in possession of a gun means you go back to prison.
I also notice we haven’t heard a peep from Sharpton or Crumb or any oh the other opportunistic race pimps. Shouldn’t they be leading demonstrations at this point?
The shooter is black.
sharpton and co. will go “meh”.
The race pimps at the lefty sites are claiming the video shows him being shot “with his hands up”. Did that look like a surrender to you?
It looked like he was trying to put his hands up, or starting to, but the cop was too quick for him.
Actually, when I watched the video earlier it looked to me as if his hands were going out towards the officer, not up. I can’t view the video now that I am at work but that is what I remember.
You are correct, Gremlin. Reid’s hands are going toward the officer, not up. Not only that, but Reid very quickly and aggressively swung the door open and charged out of the vehicle. He probably assumed that, since he had no gun, he could get away with behaving like a bad-ass without consequence. He was wrong.
Considering how shoulders, arms, and elbows are constructed, one generally moves one’s hands FORWARD while putting them UP.
“Hands up so you can breathe! Jackass.”
A couple of things that struck me about the video is that Day attempted to open the door, which was apparently locked, repeatedly, then just before Reid emerges from the car it almost looks like the Door was forced in Day’s direction, but it is hard to tell. Day may have just been surprised that the door actually opened that time.
Also, if you listen to Reid he says something to the effect of “That ain’t no phone”, so it would seem evident that contrary to instructions Reid was moving his hands out of sight of Day as if reaching for something.
Also, I realize how could a cop see a gun in the glove box if the glove box hand not been opened first. I wouldn’t expect someone to keep their license in the glove box, so why was it open if not to retrieve the weapon that was stored within.
Lastly, we aren’t talking about a person who is inexperienced with interactions with the police, we are talking about a hardened violent criminal who is more than aware of what he should do when confronted by police. He chose, let me say that one more time, HE CHOSE not to do the rational and smart thing.
Registration and insurance card are usually kept in the glove box. Opened to get them and if the driver was legal to own and possess, he may have told them.
They never asked for Registration and Insurance, it never got that far, they just asked for license. I mean it was a California roll through a stop sign. I would be they were probably thinking, run the driver for warrants, issues a warning citation, write it up as a “contact with the public” and move along.
And even if he was actually reaching for his phone, he was REPEATEDLY ordered not to.
Knowing about his past offenses, it is absolutely reasonable to assume that he was reaching for a gun, not a phone.
I nominate this a-hole for the Darwin awards.
At 1:32 Officer Days refers to the suspect by name: “Hey Jerome, you reach for something …” So obviously he did recognize him.
This is one reason why every police car should have a dash cam (preferably HD these days), and every police officer should have a body cam. Each must be on all the time.
Precisely because we have video, there’s virtually nothing to argue.
Good police officers should embrace video. It will save them at any hearing/trial.
Dash cams can be virtually “always on” but they capture only what’s in front of the car.
In other words, it would have been utterly useless in the Mike Brown, Ferguson MO circus, as none of that action took place immediately in front of the car.
Body cams CANNOT (given current technology) be “always on,” but rather need to be turned on as needed. Again, this would have been worthless for the first half of the Mike Brown, Ferguson MO circus, as Brown attacked from the flank.
It also might have well been worthless in the second half of the Ferguson MO circus, as the most “obvious” positions for body cams ( e.g., center chest) are blocked from forward view once the officer presents his sidearm.
And the alternative positions, such as head mounted, increase the the officer’s danger–Mike Brown would have been punching a solid camera into Darren Wilson’s temple. Unless we’re going to have the police wear military style helmets to mount the cameras?
I’m all in favor of video–I believe it almost always helps the innocent party, and I’m a big fan of the innocent party.
But the notion that the current generation of dash cams and body cams are some kind of talisman of evidentiary purity, instead of the half-measures they truly are, is simply silly.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Ohh, what we need are those little floaty drones from Sci-Fi movies, yea that’s the ticket.
I think you’re behind the tech curve. You can indeed record full always-on 10 hour shifts and you’ll find numerous examples with a simple search. Didn’t bother looking for 360 degree car-roof mounted cameras but I know it’s just a matter of a lens and software. Obviously always-on digital audio recording has been capable for a decade or more.
Put me in the camp of people that want cops wired up with as much recording as possible. And yep I love the idea that as soon as the cop exits the vehicle a drone will lift off from the roof of the car and trail the cop.
Certainly if “always on” is so straightforward there must be AT LEAST ONE police department in the US that does this? One? No?
I didn’t say it wasn’t POSSIBLE, I said it wasn’t PRACTICAL.
And it’s not.
I suggest using the effort police departments and prosecutors put in NOW to redact WRITTEN documents casts some light on the enormously greater effort that will be required when we’re instead dealing with video. Who’s going to do all that video editing? At what cost?
Talk to some cops about how this might integrate with their actual jobs, in actual use, and their administrations about budgets, maybe to some privacy experts about the legal implications of all those faces the camera captures in the background, and the truth shall set you free. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
How about a google maps video camera mounted on every car? 360 degree views! I’m sure obama will be glad to share his “stash” for that!
Hey, Andrew, don’t know if you have seen this yet, it is the video of a Police Officer forced to engage a suspect. I share it not because of the use of force, even though it is a pretty clear case of a justified use, I share it because of the body camera footage itself. This is probably the best and most clear body cam footage I have seen to date, and I love the over the shoulder view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VEjO-Wi0s
I had not seen that body cam video, thanks, it’s added to the collection.
Looks like lens was mounted on the weak-shoulder (right shoulder for this left-handed cop).
It’s not a bad location, but any location has substantial weaknesses.
Here it works very well, as the action is directly ahead.
Good shooting, too, I feel obliged to note. Or lucky. I try to be both. 🙂
–Andrew, @LawSelf Defense
I don’t understand your saying it isn’t practical when there are real companies selling real hardware. Real cities are seeing a drastic reduction in incidents by the deployment of bodycams (Rialto,CA). If full-shift recording isn’t going on today I’ll make the supposition that it’s because the police and their union reps are fighting it every step of the way. But that’s a losing battle because the general public is getting pretty sick of watching the executions-by-cop that seem to be increasing captured on cellphones.
There will be full-shift recordings forced on the police and the ones that don’t like it can quit. That may force some good cops out but more likely than not the quitters will be ones that shouldn’t be cops.
I’m about as far right as you can get on the political spectrum and the bodycam effort being forced by Obama is essentially the first thing that we agree on.
LOL. Available today for $1200 (probably $500 next year, $200 the year after that)…. a drone that follows you around. https://www.airdog.com/
LOL, I’m not sure whether to be impressed or afraid.
I want to be clear on one issue: When the (non-compliant) Reid stepped out of the car, he had no weapon on him, right? The only weapon “recovered” was the gun in the glove box. Right?
I would be interested in the tox report for Reid. (Priors for drug possession) The only way this makes sense to me is Reid was so high, he did not understand what Officer Days instructed him to do. Days says “Get ’em out of the car, Rodg” so it’s possible that Reid thought Days wanted him to exit the vehicle.
Remember kiddies:
When pulled over a night,
whether you Black or you white –
1. Immediately turn on car’s dome light
2. place hands on steering wheel and dash board.
3. Repeat officer’s instructions back to him/her
4. Comply with all orders, whether justified or not
5. Tell the officer in advance of any moves you make
Why is it that this criminal only received 13 years for shooting at the police? Shouldn’t the penalty be 20 years for each of the 3 he shot at with sentences to be served consecutively. He should also served the full sentence without time off for good behavior.
The whole time officer Day is shouting for Reid not to move, you can see between the seats Reid is moving all over the place.
I don’t think Reid was surrendering or that he had his hands raised. It looks like he was agitated and jumped out to challenge Day, maybe thinking because he was unarmed Day would not shoot.