A 65-year-old man killed by NYPD officers in Queens shrugged off the blast of a Taser and turned toward a group of people before he was fatally shot in the back, body-worn camera footage shows were released Friday by the attorney general’s office.
“Yo! Drop the damn knife!’ an officer yelled at Jesus Alberto Nunez Reyes as he threatened a woman while holding a small knife with a yellow handle at his side during the April 20 collision on Roosevelt Ave. near 103rd St. in Corona.
The two officers were patrolling Roosevelt Avenue around 4:20 a.m. when the heated argument between Reyes and a 49-year-old woman caught their attention.
Body camera footage shows police being led to Reyes, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, as he argued in Spanish with the woman near a KFC. As the two argued, several people stood nearby.
The officers, with weapons drawn, told Reyes more than ten times to drop his knife, but he would not comply, the footage shows. Instead, he glanced at the officers before turning to the woman, but never raised the knife.
The woman pushed Reyes away at least twice during their argument, which lasted about 10 minutes before police arrived, witnesses told the Daily News.
“They were shouting a lot,” said one witness, who asked to be identified only as Marco. “I heard the lady asking for help.”
One of the officers fired a Taser at Reyes, but he turned aside as the prongs deployed.
After more repeated commands, Reyes turned and walked away from the woman and officers toward three people standing nearby.
One of the officers fired his gun three times, hitting Reyes in the back as the people he was walking toward scrambled out of the way. The last shot was fired after Reyes had already fallen to the ground.
“I heard the police say, ‘Stop! Stop!’ And then I heard the gunshots,” Marco said. “[It was] quickly. Quick,” he said. “Boom! Boom! Boom!”
EMS rushed Reyes to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died. The woman was not injured and was questioned by detectives, police said.
Hours later, the corner was still littered with wads of blood-soaked toilet paper, a discarded baseball cap and Reyes’ jeans, which had been cut off to access one of the gunshot wounds.
After the shooting, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said the two officers used a number of different methods to subdue Reyes before resorting to deadly force.
“The officers use the taser. The taser is not working,” the chief said. “Then the officers use their weapons and stop the man.”
The two officers received no disciplinary action from the NYPD. The Attorney General’s Office released the body camera footage as the investigation into the case continues.
The April 20 incident occurred just a few weeks after the shooting of Officer Jonathan Diller, police said.
The Queens officer was shot and killed in Rockaway, Queens, by an ex-con, who was also wounded in the ensuing gunfight.
Diller had asked Guy Rivera out of a parked car on Mott Ave. on March 25. near Smith Place when Rivera allegedly opened fire on the officer, fatally shooting him in the abdomen, according to police.
Two days later, police shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario, who had called 911 after spiraling out of control during a “mental crisis,” the NYPD said.
Authorities say Rozario was attacking officers with a pair of scissors when he was shot.
