Family and friends are desperate for answers after 31-year-old Najee Seabrooks was killed by Paterson police.
Najee Seabrooks encounter with Paterson police
Seabrooks was having a mental health crisis when police were called to an apartment building on Mill Street on March 3 at approximately 7:33am.
Police said they responded to calls of an “emotionally disturbed person” and when they arrived to the apartment, a man barricaded himself inside. After prolonged negotiations, police claim, that man, now identified as Seabrooks, let officers into his home and then allegedly charged at them with a knife.
Officials said at approximately 8:42 a.m., additional resources from the Paterson Police Department responded to the scene, including the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) and the Emergency Response Team (ERT).
During the encounter, officials say less lethal force was deployed by three officers identified as Hector Mendez, Qiad Lin, and Mario Vdovjak.
At approximately 12:35 p.m., two officers from the Emergency Response Team (ERT), identified as Anzore Tsay and Jose Hernandez, fired their weapons, striking Seabrooks. He was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where he was pronounced deceased.
Officials say they could not deploy their Tasers because Seabrooks had allegedly broken pipes in the apartment and started a small fire that left significant amounts of water on the floor, making the use of the electrical device too dangerous.
He was an intervention activist
Najee Seabrooks was an intervention activist with Paterson Healing Collective (PHC), who was known to help high-risk people. The group called Seabrook’s death an “injustice,” adding that the situation should’ve never resulted in deadly force.
Najee Seabrooks (CUSHNIE-HOUSTON FUNERAL HOME)
On Tuesday, family and the community gathered in front of Paterson Healing Collective for a prayer vigil and then marched a few blocks down to city hall to demand justice.
“He did everything he could to serve his people,” Seabrooks’s best friend, Terrance Drakeford, said at the event.
Activists are demanding full transparency, urging the release of body camera recordings of the incident so the public can see for themselves what took place.
“We want full transparency, the names of all the officers released and body camera footage released,” Seabrooks’s brother Eli Carter said Tuesday.
Seabrooks reportedly had contacted members of the PHC during his crisis, but police refused to let them intervene. Law enforcement said they could not allow civilians to involve themselves in crisis prevention and shot Seabrooks only after he wielded a knife and moved toward the officers. Officials told Paterson Press that one of Seabrooks’s relatives, who works as a police officer in another city, was brought to the scene to try to deescalate the situation.
“I keep playing Friday over and over in my head,” Liza Chowdhury, project director of the PHC, said Tuesday, fighting back tears. “Police refused to let us intervene despite helping more than 250 residents throughout this city. I pleaded with them, and I know if they let us intervene he would still be alive. … He called us to help.”
The state attorney general is now investigating Najee Seabrooks shooting
A 2019 law, P.L. 2019, c. 1, requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved.
The investigation is ongoing and no further information has been released at this time.
