Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was on Saturday when a New York State trooper shot and killed a suspect following a pursuit that began on the thruway and ended up in Downtown Buffalo.
Troopers attempted to stop 38-year-old James Huber from North East, Pennsylvania as he was driving erratically on the thruway beginning near Brant. Huber continued to drive erratically and exited on to the I-190 northbound ramp. The pursuit of Huber was terminated when he exited the highway into the City of Buffalo.
While patrolling the City of Buffalo, troopers located Huber pulled over and talking to bystanders on East Eagle Street near Washington Street. The preliminary investigation determined troopers approached the vehicle, gave verbal commands, and then 14-year veteran trooper Anthony Nigro discharged his Division issued firearm at Huber, killing him at the scene.
"While interacting with the suspect, the trooper reached into the vehicle and the suspect attempted to leave the scene," said NYSP Major Carla DiRienzo at a press briefing following Saturday's incident.
Nigro also suffered minor injuries while trying to apprehend the suspect.
The investigation remains ongoing, and the New York State Attorney General's Office is now leading the investigation, which is protocol for deadly officer-involved shootings.
As part of DiRienzo's press briefing on Saturday, she noted that body cam footage of the incident will be released at some point. That footage has yet to be released, and it is unclear what the hold up is at this time.
According to former New York State Attorney General Dennis Vacco, you have to go back in time a bit to understand the complexity of why the body cam footage may be held up at the time.
"In 2015, then, Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo issued an executive order that required an investigation of all incidents involving a police officer, where somebody was either injured by a police officer or somebody was killed in the course of dealing with the police officer; that executive order, at the time, caused a great deal of consternation, because it really stripped the [District Attorney's] offices across the state of the primary authority of investigating similar incidents," Vacco explained on Tuesday. "As of July of 2015, the authority was now granted to the [Attorney General's] office. In April of 2021, the legislature codified that executive order, thereby directing under law, the A.G. to investigate all incidents where there is an incident that involves a shooting, injury or death, where a police officer both on duty or off duty is involved."
Vacco assumes the release of the body cam video is directly related to the Attorney General's investigation of the incident, which Letitia James is now conducting.
So how will this all work now that the Attorney General is in control of the investigation, and when could the body cam footage become available?
"The A.G.'s office is now going to talk to witnesses, they're going to review the body cam information or video, they're going to attempt to talk to as many police officers that were at the scene or around the scene at the time of the occurrence or participated in the chase. So the A.G.'s office is going to conduct a thorough review and a thorough investigation," Vacco said. "At the end of the day, they can either exonerate the state trooper and say that, essentially, this was a lawful act on the part of state trooper, or they can find a different conclusion, perhaps finding that the conduct of the state trooper violated state criminal law. There's no telling how long that analysis is going to take."
Vacco has been involved in similar situations in the past when dealing with incidents involving police officers. During a past investigation of a Buffalo Police officer, he said it went on for many months, thought he felt it should have been closed much sooner after the facts were clear and the police officer's conduct was lawful and justified.
However, in this instance, Vacco still believes it will be very difficult to gauge how long the Attorney General's Office will take to arrive at a conclusion.
So how complicated is this certain case involving the New York State trooper compared to other incidents in the past or that we may see pop up today?
"Here we have a state law that says regardless of the underlying facts and circumstances or regardless of what is known to both the police agency and to the prosecutor, that an investigation must take place," Vacco explained. "The fact that an investigation is ongoing doesn't pre-ordain a specific result. It certainly doesn't pre-ordain that the state trooper is going to be found to have engaged in unlawful conduct. One of the reasons why the law was panned, or why the executive order back in 2015 had so much opposition, is that it's just kind of a knee-jerk reaction now, because a police officer is involved, there has to be an investigation. We would want the investigation to be as thorough as possible, but the complication here now is that the investigators are investigating themselves, in some fashion. They're relying on the law enforcement officials who were boots on the ground, or at least involved in some fashion in this incident to provide them information."
You can listen to our entire conversation with Vacco below:
