44°
Uniformed officers had gone to the West 1st Street home on a 6:30 a.m. call of a domestic disturbance on June 7, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Video shows them being met by a woman whom sources said was the mother of Lee Waskiewicz, 47, with whom she lived.
She escorts the officers in and calls Waskiewicz down from the third floor.
Seeing police, Waskiewicz goes "upstairs and out of sight in the doorway of an attic,” Grewal said.
Officer Edward Taveras is heard in three different bodycam videos asking Waskiewicz to come down to talk to him.
“I don’t want to. F**ck you,” Waskiewicz replies at one point. “Come up here and I’ll stab you bastards.”
The recordings are posted online here: Video Footage and 911 Call Related to Fatal Police-Involved Shooting In Bayonne
Waskiewicz then “came back to the stairs armed with a knife,” Grewal said.
He again tells the officers to leave and is heard repeatedly telling them that they “are going to shoot me.”
An officer reassures him that they won’t as long as he drops the knife.
A few moments later, Waskiewicz begins descending the stairs and Taveras and Officer Timothy Ballance, Jr. open fire.
The officers then begin rendering medical aid.
“Hold on. Don’t give up,” one repeatedly tells Waskiewicz, who’d apparently been struck twice in the chest.
An EMS unit took Waskiewicz to Bayonne Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:43 a.m.
State law and his own guidelines require Grewal’s office to investigate 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."
A 10-step process ensures that the investigation are done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner,” he said.
Once the investigation is complete, the results will be presented to a grand jury -- ordinarily consisting of 16 to 23 citizens -- which will determine whether or not criminal charges are in order, the attorney general said.
Grewal said he released the three bodycam videos, along with audio of the 911 call, as part of the still-ongoing investigation by his Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).
The move is “designed to promote the fair, impartial, and transparent investigation of fatal police encounters,” he said.
Before the public release Tuesday, investigators “discussed the matter with Mr. Waskiewicz’s relatives and provided them copies of the recordings to review,” Grewal said.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Highland Lakes-Vernon and receive free news updates.
