Police video shows routine traffic stop turn deadly
BRIDGETON, N.J. — Dashboard camera footage released Wednesday to the media through public records requests shows a police traffic stop in New Jersey that quickly spiraled out of control last month.
"I tell you, I'm a shoot you, you gonna be f---ing dead," Bridgeton police Officer Braheme Days barked at Seabrook resident Jerame C. Reid during a traffic stop that quickly spiraled out of control last month.
The video shows Reid, 36, and driver Leroy Tutt, 46, of Long Branch, interacting with Days and Officer Roger Worley late on the night of Dec. 30, after they were pulled over for apparently running a stop sign.
The interaction starts with officers simply asking Tutt for documentation, then quickly escalates when Days apparently discovers a handgun in the vehicle and tries to get Reid to comply with orders.
The incident ends with Reid dead, a victim of gunshots fired by the officers.
While Reid was known to police for having an extensive criminal record, including an incident in which he shot at New Jersey state trooper as a teenager. His killing sparked a ferocious reaction from the community.
Protesters have flocked to City Council meetings to protest Reid's death — which they have called unjustified — and have demanded officials fire the two officers, who have since been placed on administrative leave while the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office investigates the case.
The shooting and the protests followed other recent high-profile events across the country in which police officers have been accused of killing unarmed black men.
In this case, Tutt, Reid and Days are black; Worley is white.
While the city police department has urged calm as the investigation continues and have defended the actions of Days and Worley, they were compelled to release the dashboard camera footage under the state's Open Public Records Act.
Though widely available through other media outlets, The Daily Journal has opted not to publish the video — captured from the point of view of the officers' cruiser — out of respect for Reid's family and the city police department.
The incident begins as a routine traffic stop, with Days and Worley following Tutt's Jaguar through a residential neighborhood at about 9:20 p.m.
The vehicle apparently fails to make a complete stop at a stop sign, and the officers signal the driver to pull over.
Days can be seen approaching the right side of the car. Reid is in the passenger seat."
Days asks for Tutt's driver's license.
"Can you go ahead and grab it for me?" Days asks, still at the passenger side of the Jaguar.
The video doesn't clearly show what happens inside the vehicle, but Days quickly draws his service weapon and begins shouting orders.
"Show me your hands, show me your f---ing hands," Days screams while attempting to open Reid's door.
Worley approaches driver's side of the vehicle as Days urges Reid to comply with his demands.
"Don't you f---ing move," Days yells. "Show me your hands, show me your hands."
Tutt seems to comply almost immediately, hanging both of his hands outside his driver's side window.
Days then says to Worley, "Get 'em out the car, Rog, we got a gun in his glove compartment."
While Worley secures Tutt's hands, Days continues his appeals to Reid for submission. The officer addresses Reid by name.
"Hey Jerome, you reach for something, you gonna be f---ing dead. Keep your f---ing hands right there."
The police cruiser's lights glare off the stop sign, flashing through residents' homes. Residents' voices are heard from the neighborhood, growing louder and louder.
The incident takes a deadly turn.
"He's reaching, he's reaching," Days screams out to Worley.
As Days backs up, Reid's door opens and he can be seen beginning to raise his hands, which nearly reach above his head before Days fires his weapon.
Worley opens fire as well, shooting across the front of the vehicle toward Reid.
Reid falls to the ground out of view of the dashcam.
Residents' distant cries continue to grow more audible, with many yelling obscenities at the police.
Days eventually turns his attention to the vehicle and its dashboard camera, telling officers in the last recorded exchange, "Turn it off, everybody should be off."
Autopsy results have still not been made available by the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, which has largely declined to release any information during its ongoing investigation.