A little more than a minute.
That’s all it took for the exchange to turn deadly.
The Police Department in Bridgeton, New Jersey, released video this week showing the death of Jerame Reid, 36, who was shot on the night of December 30.
He was a passenger in a car that got pulled over for allegedly failing to stop at a stop sign.
The dashcam video shows what happened next.
‘Show me your hands!’
Officer Braheme Days approaches the passenger side door. He asks how the two men inside the car are doing and identifies himself. The conversation is friendly.
Days asks to see a driver’s license.
Suddenly, he steps back from the vehicle and pulls his weapon.
Days shouts over and over: “Show me your hands! … Don’t you f****** move!”
He yells at his partner, Roger Worley: “Get ’em out the car, Rog. We got a gun in this glove compartment.”
Days reaches into the car and removes what appears to be a silver handgun. The shouting continues.
“I’ll telling you, I’m going to shoot you! You’re going to be f****** dead!” screams the officer. “You reach for something you’re going to be f****** dead.”
And later: “He’s reaching! He’s reaching!”
Despite the officer’s entreaties, Reid appears to push his way out of the passenger side door. He gets out of the car with his hands in front of him.
Both Days and Worley open fire. Reid drops to the ground.
The vehicle’s other occupant did not appear to be injured. He got out of the car, lay on the ground and was handcuffed.
Under investigation
A December statement from the local prosecutor’s office did not identify the driver. It said a handgun was revealed and recovered during the stop.
Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, and an investigation into the use of deadly force is ongoing, the statement said.
Bridgeton Police Capt. Michael Gaimari described Days and Worley as “very good officers” responsible for “a lot of key arrests.”
Another statement released this week said: “The Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office is committed to conducting a thorough, fair and impartial investigation into the police-involved shooting death of Jerame Reid. Requests for the release of additional information while the confidential investigation is ongoing stand in the way of completing a neutral, objective and independent evaluation of the facts. This observation is not unique to this matter.”
Gaimari said Days was one of four officers who arrested Reid last August on charges that included resisting arrest, drug possession, intent to distribute and failure to appear. The disposition of the case was not immediately known.
In addition, Reid had been arrested six times by Bridgeton police since 2009 on charges of making terroristic threats, harassment, burglary, obstruction, marijuana possession and stalking, according to police records. The disposition of each case is unknown. Police and court records list Reid’s first name as Jerome, but the prosecutor’s office listed it as Jerame.
In New Jersey, some local leaders are demanding that the state take over the investigation.
“Jerome put his hand ups,” said Walter Hudson, chairman and founder of the National Awareness Alliance. “You can see Jerome’s hands are clearly up.”
The Police Department reportedly released the video after a public records request was made by the South Jersey Times.
