Lawyer for Paterson cops who shot Najee Seabrooks says they tried to help him
PATERSON — A lawyer advising the Paterson police officers involved in the fatal shooting of violence intervention specialist Najee Seabrooks said Thursday that he was confident the New Jersey Attorney’s Office would clear them of any wrongdoing.
The lawyer, Pat Caserta, said that once authorities reveal all the details of the incident it will show that the emergency response team members made “extraordinary efforts … to help Mr. Seabrooks.”
Caserta did not elaborate on those efforts.
The police lawyer also took aim at people he called “self-described activists and leaders” who he said are making false accusations against the officers based on “street rumors” rather than facts.
“I’m dismayed by their actions,” Caserta said. “I wish they would wait until the facts all come out and then make their judgment based on the facts rather than street rumors.”
Paterson Black Lives Matter leader Zellie Thomas said Caserta’s confidence that the officers would be cleared stemmed from institutional failings of the criminal justice system to protect “Black and brown people.”
Meanwhile, Liza Chowdhury, director of the Paterson Healing Collective organization where Seasbrooks worked, asserted that members of her group who were at the scene could have gotten their colleague out of the standoff safely if the police had allowed them to intervene.
“Whether they are cleared of wrongdoing or not, he would be alive if they had let us help,” said Chowdhury.
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Frustration over unreleased bodycam footage grows
Critics and defenders of the police officers involved in Seabrooks’ fatal shooting agree on one thing — both sides have expressed frustration over the fact that the body-worn camera recordings of the March 3 incident have not been made public yet.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office waited five days before releasing the names of the Paterson police who were involved. The attorney general's office late on Wednesday said officers Anzore Tsay and Officer Jose Hernandez shot Seabrooks, while officers Hector Mendez, Qiad Lin, and Mario Vdovjak used “less lethal force” against him.
Law enforcement sources said the other three officers fired either rubber bullets or bean bags at Seabrooks near the end of a standoff that lasted for more than four hours at his apartment bathroom on Mill Street. It is not yet clear what caused Seabrooks’ mental health crisis that day.
After the release of the officers’ names, photos of at least two of them began circulating on Instagram by someone posted them anonymously as “xposethecopsandcorrupt.” One post mentioned that Lin owned a restaurant in Paterson.
“Burn his [place] down,” wrote one person who commented on the post.
Caserta attributed the threat against the officer’s restaurant to what he described as “misinformation” being spread about the incident. Thomas, the BLM leader, said the police union lawyer should also be condemning the police sources who put out information about the Seabrooks case he said will “taint the investigation and dehumanize and criminalize the victim.”
Paterson Press has reported that police sources said Seabrooks was wielding multiple knives, set a fire inside the apartment, broke water pipes, hit one officer with a porcelain toilet cover and sprayed a chemical-like substance in another cop’s face.
Earlier:NJ Attorney General releases names of officers who fatally shot Najee Seabrooks
Officers' backgrounds and use-of-force
Tsay and Mendez have been Paterson police officers since 2015, Hernandez and Vdovjak since 2017, and Lin since 2020, according to city personnel records. All are current members of the Paterson police emergency response team.
Paterson Press searched federal and state lawsuit files and could not find any civil complaints accused the five officers of using excessive force or mistreating members of the public.
The attorney general's office makes available online information on all use of force reports filed by New Jersey law enforcement officers. Those online file do not contain any reports of the five officers firing their guns or shooting rubber bullets or bean bags since 2020.
Hernandez filed 15 use of force reports, including 11 for taking down or tackling people. Vdovjak had three use of force reports, including one takedown, and twice using his arms on people. The other three officers filed two use of force reports each since 2020, all for physical force with their bodies.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Najee Seabrooks death: Paterson NJ cops tried to help, said lawyer
