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What Thelonious McKnight, 25, didn’t know was that the gun’s safety was on.
He took the safety off, exchanged gunfire with another detective and was shot.
The fatal Dec. 29, 2021 police shooting was justified, a state-mandated review by a grand jury has found, authorities reported on Tuesday, Dec. 12.
It was earlier that night when a detective watching images from street surveillance cameras at headquarters saw McKnight and another man with what appeared to be handguns at East Main and Hillman streets, New Jersey Attorney General William Platkin said.
Officers headed to the scene and grabbed the other man on Jefferson Street. He was carrying a loaded handgun, the attorney general said. McKnight wasn’t there.
Later that night, the detective who’d been watching the screens spotted him on East Main Street.
Detectives pulled up in an unmarked vehicle and asked McKnight to remove his hands from his sweatshirt pouch. He initially complied, then shoved them back in, Platkin said.
Detective Mohammed Bashir patted him down, felt a weapon and shouted, “Gun!”
McKnight ignored orders to remove his hands, then headed up a flight of stairs into a private alleyway, the attorney general said.
He tried to open a back door of a home with no luck, Platkin said.
Then he pulled the gun and exchanged fire with Bashir, the AG said.
The detective squeezed off 14 shots from his 40-caliber service weapon, he said.
The 9mm handgun McKnight used was recovered nearby, Platkin said. It had been fired nine times without hitting anyone, he said.
Police and emergency medical personnel rendered first aid to McKnight, who Platkin said was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician from St. Joseph’s University Medical Center at 9:11 p.m.
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 was complete, the results were presented to a grand jury. As part of the process, Platkin publicly released a collection of video recordings from the scene, including a Facebook video made by a civilian with his phone.
CLICK HERE: Paterson, NJ Police-Involved Shooting (12-29-2021)
Investigators from the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) met with McKnight’s family to review the recordings before their release.
The recordings were also presented to the grand jury, along with photographs, interviews with witnesses and autopsy results.
The grand jurors concluded deliberations on Monday, Dec. 11, by voting a no bill, finding that Bashir’s actions were entirely justified.
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