Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo police provided another update on Thursday into the fatal officer-involved shooting early Wednesday morning after, what appeared to be, a routine traffic stop on Kensington Avenue.
As part of the press briefing, the Buffalo Police Department released the body cam footage, which had been shown to the family of the driver, identified as 25-year-old Daevon Roberts of Buffalo, as well as the family of the 6-year-old boy also in the car at the time of the incident.
"Obviously, it's a very sad situation all the way around. This family has been through a lot over the last several years, and I certainly expressed my acknowledgement of that fact, that this family has been through a lot. And I express my condolences to the family," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia on Thursday.
In reviewing the video further from both police officers that conducted the traffic stop, as well as sifting through the evidence that has been gathered, to this point, Gramaglia believes the actions of Officer Ronald Ammerman were a justified use of force.
"When you take into account the fact that the officer found himself in a grave risk of serious physical injury or death, the use of that level of force is justified by law. And I do believe that is a justified use of force in this case," Gramaglia stated. "There still is investigating that will be done."
As Gramaglia detailed on Wednesday in the hours after the shooting, there was a handgun recovered inside the car underneath the driver's seat that was found after a search warrant was obtained through the Attorney General's Office.
"That handgun was a Taurus 9mm handgun loaded with seven rounds - one in the chamber and six in the magazine - that we are still working through to trace that gun, working with the ATF," Gramaglia said Thursday. "We will go back and trace that gun, so there's more work that needs to be done on that, as well as a lot of other follow up."
As for the officers involved in Wednesday morning's shooting, Ammerman has been with the Buffalo Police Department for seven-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, Officer Jonathan Crawford was his backup officer, who has been with the department for two years.
Neither officer have been interviewed yet, due to Garrity Rights. They will be interviewed, at some point, by detectives within the Buffalo Police Department, as well as the Attorney General's Office. As per standard protocol, both officers are, at this time, on administrative leave.
As for the actions of Officer Ammerman to not let go of the vehicle once Roberts decided to take off, Gramaglia says there's no preparing any officer for a situation like this to happen. In that instance, Gramaglia felt Ammerman was doing what he could to not severely injury himself, and also get the car stopped.
"These situations, they don't evolve in a classroom, they don't evolve in a training facility. This is real life. There's not a lot of control with the way some of these situations go on," Gramaglia said. "We can train for various situations, but when it happens in real life, when they're actual situations, they always happen differently than what they do in a training facility. So I think that car, it was at 0-to-60 in a very rapid succession, and I think the officer did what he had to do to survive."
In addition, Gramaglia believes Ammerman did what he could to try and get his legs inside of the car to help stop the car, which eventually led to the fight between the officer and Roberts as the car was still in motion.
Gramagalia also reiterated the fact that Roberts was able to present an ID from the State of Georgia on a cell phone, but was not able to verify and sort of valid driver's license at the traffic stop.
"He obviously was not able to drive a car, he cannot prove a driver's license. He was insistent that he had one, although our DMV checks both in Georgia and New York revealed there wasn't one," Gramaglia said. "Again, I keep going back to just how routine of a traffic stop this was. What he had, what the officer had at that situation is something that, at that moment, at most, are a couple of traffic summonses. This was as routine as it gets. But he was going to have to come out of the car regardless, because he could not drive the car. He could not remain in the car.
"And as the officer said, he wanted to have him step out of the car - that was gonna happen - and then also talk further about he was insistent that there was a license to try to further gain more information that would help them positively identify him, or see if there was a driver's license in another name. It does happen more than you think where people do not give us accurate information, which prevents us from finding the information we're looking for. He was gonna have to step out of the car regardless. That was perfectly legal, perfectly within policy to do that."
While it remains unknown why Roberts decided to take off when he did during the incident, Gramaglia did point to an indictment he was under for attempting to shoot somebody back on April 22 this year.
"The Buffalo Police Department arrested him for allegedly firing shots at another individual. That case was presented to a Grand Jury and ultimately he was indicted for Attempted Assault in the First Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree," Gramaglia detailed. He was arraigned on June 4, I know that's public. The DA's Office put out a press release on that indictment. And again, we found a handgun in the car while he was out of custody. He was allowed to remain free at the time of his arraignment on that indictment. So there is a prior felony conviction on his record that if that came into play, given the circumstances of everything, I think only, unfortunately, Mr. Roberts knows why he took off. I can only surmise."
As for the 6-year-old boy, Gramaglia says the officers maintained custody of the child until the mother was able to get on scene and be reunited with her son.
A link to the body cam footage from Buffalo Police is available here:
WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised.
Most Popular
Comments / 0