NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — The City of Niagara Falls Police Department has released the names of the officers involved in a fatal shooting last month.
Niagara Falls Police say officers responded to a call of shots fired at an apartment complex at 942 Niagara Avenue August 3 around 9:30 p.m. When officers arrived on scene, they encountered a 53-year-old male from Niagara Falls with a handgun.
The Niagara Falls Police Department released bodycam footage of the incident.
The body cam footage shows Officers Kayla Richards and Ian Sitek responding. When they arrived, a woman told them a man was shooting at her car. Police could be heard in the video making numerous requests for the subject, identified as Benjamin Rivers, 53, to drop the gun. Police say the Rivers had the gun in his right hand and was seen approaching officers. Niagara Falls Police Superintendent John Faso says Rivers raised his arms with the gun after officers told him to do so, but then fired, hitting Officer Richards patrol car and just missing her.
Police returned fire, striking the man with multiple shots.
"Both officers gave numerous verbal commands for him to drop the gun," Faso said of the events leading up to the shooting.
The police officers performed CPR on the male subject before he was transported to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, where he was declared dead.
Niagara Falls Police Captain John Conti said Rivers spent most of his life in the Bronx and had "no extensive criminal history" in Western New York. In the past few months, the man was a victim of larceny and assault, as well as a domestic dispute prior to the shooting.
Neither officer was physically injured in the incident. The officers were placed on paid administrative leave per protocol. They both have been with the department for about two years.
The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation is investigating the shooting, as they do with all police-involved shooting.