Video of police shooting stirs anger

Associated Press

BRIDGETON, N.J.

A video of police officers confronting and then fatally shooting a black man at a traffic stop has raised questions and stirred anger over another death at the hands of police.

On Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s civil-rights organization got involved. The National Action Network released a statement saying it was joining other groups calling for the state government to investigate.

The video of the Dec. 30 killing of Jerame Reid in Bridgeton, a struggling, mostly minority city of 25,000 people, was released this week.

The nearly two-minute deadly standoff came after the killings of black men in New York and Ferguson, Mo., triggered months of turbulent protests, violence and calls for a re-examination of police use of force.

Attorney Conrad Benedetto said he has been hired by Reid’s wife, Lawanda Reid, to investigate. He said in a statement the footage “raises serious questions as to the legality and/or reasonableness of the officers’ actions that night” because Reid was shot as he raised his hands.

Police, with the dashboard camera in their cruiser rolling, pulled a Jaguar over for running a stop sign on a dark night. But things suddenly turned tense when one of the officers warned his partner he could see a gun in the glove compartment.

Screaming repeatedly “Don’t you f---ing move!” and “Show me your hands!” at the man in the passenger seat, the officer reached into the car and appeared to remove a silver handgun.

Then, the passenger, despite being warned repeatedly not to move, stepped out of the Jaguar, his hands raised about shoulder level.

The officers opened fire, killing him.