Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Police released body camera footage on Thursday of an incident that took place last Friday near Broadway at Sears Street.
According to Police, the incident took place just before 7:20 p.m. ET when Ferry-Fillmore officers were on routine patrol and pulled up on a 63-year-old male shot multiple times. The victim, Atlas Johnson of Buffalo, was declared deceased at the scene.
The 27-year-old suspect involved in the fatal shooting, Nakeem Haynes of Buffalo, then jumped on the hood of a patrol vehicle and fired one shot at officers at close range through the windshield. While the bullet did not physically injure Officer Jake Michienzi, it did strike his holster and left a mark on his gun. As a result of that bullet strike, a slug was recovered at the scene.
Police then pursued the suspect on foot for a brief chase, where Haynes was alleged to have fired more rounds at the officers. Shortly after on Playter Street, Officers Michienzi and Hao Tran fired multiple rounds that struck the suspect eight times.
"The officers, as you can see in the video, were obviously very, very, stunned," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia during a press briefing following Thursday's release of the body cam footage. "You could see that they were going through a lot at that moment, but they still had the wherewithal to start recognizing, they checked themselves to find whether or not either of them were struck. As I said it turns out the officer [Michienzi] was struck in the holster. The officers then started changing gears to render first aid. The officers started asking people on the street for towels, for water. The officers were looking for gloves, they began putting gloves on and they started to examine the defendant when he was on the ground."
According to Buffalo Police, the incident all took place within the timeframe of approximately one minute from the time the first shots were fired that killed the 63-year-old man to the last shots fired by officers that struck the suspect.
After being tended to by Buffalo Police, the suspect was transported to Erie County Medical Center, where he remains listed in stable condition.
"This, again, reiterates a situation where our officers, doing what they do every day, are out being present, visible and engaged on in the public. They witnessed a very heinous, cold-blooded murder of a 63-year-old man, and did their job with professionalism and diligence, and pursued a very heavily-armed suspect, who had already shown a propensity for murder, as well as an attempt to kill police officers on multiple occasions."
As per department policy, both Officers Michienzi and Tran were placed on administrative leave following the incident.
Also as part of the video released by Buffalo Police on Thursday was footage from two other officers, Officers Stephen Clapp and Joshua Aponte, that were on a call just about a block or so away at a grocery store dealing with another incident.
"The reason that we released that body camera [footage] is because you can very clearly hear the five gunshots, which was the gunshots from the homicide. That's why we released that video so that you can hear the audio of those cameras," Gramaglia explained. "They had their cameras rolling, because they were on an active call at that time, and then immediately proceeded to that location, where they were still looking for the other officers. You can hear on the audio on their cameras, were one of the officers screams into the radio that 'He's shooting at us!' They were responding to try to find the location of the officers, and then realized they observed an individual that was down on the ground."
Gramaglia believes the actions the officers responding took were within the confines of the law, and within the confines of department policy, with relation to the use of deadly physical force. He also says the body camera footage shows the fact that the officers did everything they could with the equipment they had to render first aid and attempt to preserve life after the incident.
Hear more from Commissioner Gramaglia's press briefing in the player below:
