“Hands up, don’t shoot” has become a rallying cry at protests against police brutality since the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last summer. But now, video and audio have just been released by the Bridgeton, New Jersey Police Department which highlight the poignancy of the phrase. The dashcam footage clearly shows officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley shooting Jerame Reid who had his hands plainly in front of him, after exiting the vehicle to show his hands were empty when officers claimed otherwise…
This all started as a traffic stop but within two minutes, police claimed they had found a gun.
There was a gun in the car, but it was the passenger who was shot, and he did not have a gun on him. He even, as it turns out, made every attempt to remove himself from association with the driver, making it clear that the gun was not his and showing his hands for officers to see he did not have anything in them.
Watch the video below, then continue reading…
“Show me your hands, show me your f*cking hands!” Officer Days can be heard yelling. That’s exactly what Reid ends up doing, hoping to avoid being shot.
Officer Worley approached the driver’s side with his gun drawn.
The driver put his hand out of the window.
Days barks: “Don’t f*cking move!” over and over.
“Get ‘em out the car, Rog. We’ve got a gun in his glove compartment,” Days claims.
Officer Days can then be seen reaching through the window. He has what looks like a silver object.
“I’m telling you, I’m telling you!” Officer Days continues to yell, “Keep your f*cking hands right there. Eh, eh, Jerame, you reach for something, you’re going to be f*cking dead.”
Then, suddenly, Days yells, “He’s reaching! He’s reaching!”
Reid can be heard saying “let me out of the f*cking car,” making it clear that he has nothing in his hands and is not reaching for anything.
Reid gets out, hands in plain sight, obviously not wanting to be in the car where there could be any question about where his hands were. Instead he got out and showed his hands clearly, understanding that Officer Days was saying things that were simply not true.
Both Officer Days and Officer Worley quickly discharged their weapons into Reid almost ten times between the two of them.
The Police Department said that they refused to release the video, out of respect for Reid. But Reid’s wife saw the whole thing on Tuesday afternoon.
In the weeks since the shooting, there have been protests in downtown Bridgeton, demanding answers about the shooting and justice for Reid, but the case has thus far received relatively little national attention.
Oh yeah, both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave. But you knew that already, didn’t you?