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A 9mm handgun was recovered -- along with nine 9mm shell casings -- near the body of Thelonious McKnight, 25, in a backyard alleyway off East Main Street shortly before 9 p.m. on Dec. 29, 2021, Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
It all happened in an instant.
Storefront and city surveillance cameras shows a group of men hanging out and a police vehicle pulling up in a mixed-use neighborhood of multi-family homes and businesses near the Passaic River.
Bruck previously said that investigators had made an arrest there hours earlier and were looking for another suspect when they returned to the block.
Within seconds of their arrival, two detectives are seen on surveillance video drawing and pointing their guns as others pursue a suspect into the alley.
The only footage from the scene is the Facebook video, taken by a man who informs the officers that he's "recording y'all" as they're heard yelling at McKnight to stop.
Suddenly, a series of shots ring out.
"F--k you! Y'all buggin'! What y'all do to my brother?" the man with the camera screams.
Paterson Police Detective Mohammed Bashir had fired his .40-caliber service weapon, fatally wounding McKnight, Bruck said Wednesday. Fourteen .40-caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene, the attorney general said.
McKnight -- who Paterson Mayor Andrew Sayegh said had exchanged shots with his pursuers -- was pronounced dead at the scene soon after.
The entire collection of recordings released Wednesday by the Attorney General’s Office can be found by clicking here: Paterson, NJ Police-Involved Shooting (12-29-2021)
Footage from one bodycam was included -- that of an officer who rushed to the backyard with a medical bag. None of the other officers and detectives in the alleyway apparently had body cameras.
The recordings were released "in response to an OPRA request and pursuant to policies established by the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 that are designed to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters," Bruck said.
Investigators from the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) met with McKnight’s family to review the recordings before their release, he said.
"The investigation is ongoing," Bruck said. "No further information is being released at this time."
Both state law and his own guidelines require the attorney general to investigate any and all deaths that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody."
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner."
Once the investigation is complete, the results are presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- that determines whether or not there's cause to suspect any wrongdoing on the part of law enforcement.
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