BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Police Department on Wednesday released body camera footage from Monday morning, when two officers shot a man on Hertel Avenue.
Two Buffalo Police officers are on paid leave after the shooting. They were identified as Officers Phillip Edwards and Michael Ramos.
When Buffalo's new police commissioner said there was body camera video of this incident and he would release it, 2 On Your Side's Claudine Ewing submitted the necessary paperwork to get the video. We obtained it Wednesday.
The body cam footage captures the police encounter with a man who had a knife, and that man was shot multiple times. Buffalo Police said Wednesday they did not have an update on the man's condition but he was last recovering at ECMC. He was identified as Dominique Thomas, 31.
No charges had been filed against Thomas as of Wednesday afternoon.
The video shared by Buffalo Police was from the body camera of Officer Ramos. It begins with at least three officers including Ramos in the stairwell of a Hertel Avenue apartment building. They were responding to a call that someone was threatening to kill someone around 4:30 a.m. Monday.
As they talk to the man at the top of the stairs, who was later identified as Thomas, there's a verbal exchange.
"You OK?" police asked.
"No, I'm not," Thomas replied.
Then Officer Edwards relays to Ramos that there's a knife. The body cam footage was edited by police, circling the knife in red.
WARNING: The video shows events leading up to and following the shooting and could be considered disturbing for some to watch.
"You got a knife in your pocket, put that down," police told Thomas. "Yo, put that down, big dog." You hear an officer sigh and the group begins to head outside but Thomas follows with the knife still in his hand.
The video shows him being told more than once to put down the weapon.
"Put the knife down," police said. "Put it down, bro. Put the knife down. Put it down," but Thomas kept approaching the officers.
"Put the knife down, let's talk, stop about it," police said again. A few minutes later Thomas started running towards Officer Ramos and Edwards and both opened fire.
The video shows Dominique Thomas being shot multiple times, you can hear 10 gunshots. The officers immediately went to help Thomas and had called an ambulance ahead of time. From the video you can hear and see both Ramos and Edwards were visibly upset.
"Bro, why, man?" an officer shouted. They were immediately placed in the back of a patrol car.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia held a press conference Wednesday afternoon and while he said these situations are never easy for anyone involved he stood by his team's actions on Monday.
Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia was asked why the officers shot so many times?
"They did not go there with the advantage that it was a mental health call had they done that then maybe there would have been some other type of tactic although in that particular situation I think the way they responded I don't think the tactics would have changed," said Gramaglia.
Gramaglia was also asked about less-lethal tools -- like tasers but he said the officers involved in Monday's shooting had not yet been trained. Tasers were introduced into the Buffalo Police Department within the past two weeks but only about 170 officers are currently trained to use them. The training is 10 hours long.
"We're rapidly pushing that training out and all 5 districts have tasers and as soon as the officers are trained they will be carrying the tasers," Gramaglia said.
"Do I wish the officers had a taser or a bola wrap, yes but I don't think the tactics used would have been different."
Another element absent from the police response was the Buffalo Behavioral Health Team which Gramaglia said was not on duty at the time of the shooting.
Commissioner Gramaglia did add that there were other body cameras active but what was released by the department was "the best angle." He added that this was the first use of force video released by the department. that BPD would continue to improve the process going forward.