reactions are pouring in after yesterday's decision by the state's grand jury not to file criminal charges against two Paterson police officers involved in the fatal shooting of 31-year-old Najee Seabrooks in 2023 Seabrooks a violence intervention specialist was killed following an hours long standoff with police while he was having a mental health crisis despite calls from fellow intervention Specialists to intervene they were not allowed access an investigation and the release of body camera footage shows that officers fatally shot Seabrooks after he moved toward police with a knife his death sparked a firestorm and eventually led the city to take significant steps toward reform however as Ted Goldberg reports yesterday's decision was disappointing but not surprising for Community Advocates Najee Seabrooks and others like him should still be alive today after a grand jury denied to indict the Paterson police officers who shot and killed Najee Seabrooks.

Social justice activists say they're disappointed but not surprised the courts will always side with the police officers and not the victims because they will say that the the police officers did with everything that they was legally required to do there needs to be more investigation that the police officers need to be held accountable um and then we need this by having a uh by having a systemic change and by holding them to be accountable we can reach that systemic change about two years ago Seabrooks called 911 while while experiencing a mental health crisis in Paterson after police responded it began a 5-hour standoff where Seabrooks locked himself in a bathroom hurting himself and setting a fire in the bathroom until body cam footage shows him emerging with a knife they did everything they possibly humanly could to try to deescalate that situation and you know sometimes things just don't end up the way we want it to end up Paterson PBA president Angel Jimenez says these officers followed protocol and did nothing wrong he also says the State's Attorney General's office was fair in investigating the shooting they were extremely thorough to you know in their investigation but now I I I would hope that those individuals who accuse my members of murderers that they would come out and apologize a few weeks after the shooting the AG's office took over the Paterson Police Department.

Seabrook's death also sparked widespread protests and criticism of how police respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis 15 years ago I can understand having that feeling but you know these guys the training is different you know so that 5 hour standoff that that you guys that you know that we all we all know about is is part of the training that has occurred in the last what five or six years with this AG even if someone does have a weapon or is acting erratically that does not mean that they deserve um um bullets in that moment they deserve patients care there needs to be a mental health professional on scene first responding and that there is a continued issue here of the police being militarized of there being police response to a Health crisis and that um unfortunately the the family of Najee Seabooks is not going to be able to see this uh this play out in the courts and potentially get Justice here arrive together is a Statewide program that pairs mental health professionals with police to respond to certain 911 calls Jimenez says it's an option for Paterson in the future very open to that but it doesn't mean that it's going to prevent something like this from happening right you know what I mean like you have someone that's barricaded someone that's being you know a situation where someone's being violent when a victim a potential victim sees um officers you know in riot gear or multiple officers you know armed inside their homes they they feel threatened especially individuals who may not be in their correct mental state in response to Najee's death the Seabrooks Washington bill was introduced named in Seabrooks honor and appropriates $12 million in state funds to community response teams as for the Paterson Police Department the state supreme court will hear arguments in the next month about whether or not it's constitutional for the AG to take it over in a lawsuit brought by the state's PBA it is well within the Attorney General's authority to uh to supersede a police department and and that Authority has been granted by the legislature of the New Jersey and um and it's something that has repeated over the the course of history uh uh under the Office of the Attorney General and late last week the Seabrooks family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Paterson the family hoping someone will someday be held accountable for the death of their loved one for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]