NJ attorney general: At least two guns were fired during fatal Paterson police shooting

PATERSON — Investigators found ballistic evidence indicating that at least two separate guns fired a total of 23 shots at the scene of the fatal police shooting of 25-year-old Thelonious McKnight on Dec. 29, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced Wednesday.

The Attorney General’s Office said investigators found 14 bullet casings from a .40-caliber handgun — the type of weapon authorities said Paterson Police Officer Mohammed Bashir used to fatally shoot McKnight.

The state said another nine shell casings at the scene were from a 9 mm handgun — the type of weapon the Attorney General’s Office said was found next to McKnight’s body.

The Attorney General’s Office has not said who investigators think fired the 9 mm gun. The .40-caliber handgun is the type of weapon issued by the Police Department to all Paterson cops, according to the city’s police unions. Officers while on duty also are allowed to carry backup guns of different calibers — weapons that must be registered with the department, the unions said.

Hours after the incident, Mayor Andre Sayegh said McKnight had fired at the officers before he was killed.

As part of Wednesday’s announcement about the ballistic evidence, the Attorney General’s Office also released six video recordings from before, during and after the shooting as well as 12 minutes and 20 seconds of audio of police radio transmissions and 911 calls about the incident.

State investigators met with McKnight’s family members and showed them the recordings before releasing them to the news media.

“It was hard,” McKnight’s sister, Janet Rodriguez, said when asked about watching the recordings. “I saw my brother right before he was killed. I don’t know what else to say.”

Paterson Press asked McKnight's sister if the recordings provided her with any new information about the incident.

“I know what happened,” Rodriguez said. “Nothing I saw on those videos changes anything.”

McKnight’s family has maintained that he was unarmed when he was shot by police. Rodriguez cited a video released Wednesday from a body camera worn by a police officer who responded to the scene after the shooting as evidence that her brother was not holding a gun.

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Rodriguez said that video showed her brother with a bottle of alcohol while emergency medical technicians worked on him. Another video, she said, showed him holding a cellphone. She said both his hands were occupied.

“Where was the gun?” she said.

The Attorney General's Office had redacted — or blacked out — the portions of the video that showed McKnight getting medical treatment.

Two of the videos released by the attorney general — one recorded by McKnight’s brother during the incident and another from a street security camera — had been widely circulated on social media by McKnight supporters.

The security footage showed three detectives from the street crimes unit stop their vehicle on East Main Street, then get out and approach McKnight — along with several other men. At first, the officers appeared to be holding flashlights.

Suddenly, the video showed the cops jump backward and pull out their guns before disappearing down the alley, toward where the shooting happened.

The brother’s cellphone video showed the officers from behind as they were walking down the alley.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, brother, don’t shoot,” someone called out.

After that, the brother yelled down the alley, “I’m recording y’all.”

Seconds later, a barrage of gunfire could be heard, followed by screams and profanity.

“Yo, y’all buggin,” McKnight’s brother screamed. “What’d y’all do with my brother?”

None of the three detectives present at the shooting were wearing body cameras, officials said. The Paterson Police Department has not yet complied with state mandates that the vast majority of law enforcement officers be equipped with the recording devices.

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The Attorney General's Office said the three officers were investigating an earlier incident when they encountered McKnight shortly before 9 p.m. One of the videos released Wednesday — taken by a Police Department surveillance camera — showed McKnight and two other men on East Main Street at 5:37 p.m. on the night he was killed.

One of the men — wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt — walked up to McKnight and pulled something black out of his pocket, showed it to McKnight, put it back in his pocket and walked away. McKnight also held what looked like a metal object, which he showed to the man in the gray hoodie.

“To me, it looked like a cellphone,” said Rodriguez, McKnight's sister, when asked about that video.

The Attorney General's Office did not provide an explanation of why it included the 5:37 p.m. video in its press release, nor did state authorities reveal what they believe the footage showed.

Multiple Paterson police sources said the man in the gray sweatshirt was arrested on gun possession charges shortly after that video was taken. The police sources said the street crime detectives believed the metal object held by McKnight was a gun. That was the reason they were looking for him later in the night, the police sources said.

Zellie Thomas, the leader of Paterson’s Black Lives Matter group, said he viewed the video in question. He said the video didn’t give a clear picture of exactly what McKnight was holding. Because of that uncertainty, Thomas said, the video should not have prompted police to go looking for McKnight.

“The police officers should have used de-escalation techniques, not deadly force,” Thomas said. “Being suspected of having a gun, or even having a gun, should not be a death sentence.”

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.

Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ police-involved shooting: At least two guns fired, says AG