9°
Chilling bodycam videos clearly show Englewood Police Officer Luana Sharpe and other officers were struggling over a knife with 22-year-old city resident Bernard Placide when she shot him on Labor Day 2022.
A grand jury review was nonetheless required under New Jersey law because Placide died during an encounter with law enforcement.
Evidence was collected by investigators with the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA). It included the video along with photographs and autopsy results, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
The grand jurors concluded the proceeding by voting a "no bill." It was a clean shoot, in other words.
Sharpe and fellow Englewood Police Officer Brian Havlicek had been summoned for a domestic violence disturbance shortly before 8:30 a.m. Sept. 3, 2022, Platkin said.
"The caller reported that a man with a knife was stabbing and trying to kill a relative inside the residence," the attorney general said, adding that three people had been stabbed.
Placide has a bedroom door in a West Englewood Avenue home partially open in the video when the officers arrive. He’s shirtless, wearing yellow rubber cleaning glove and holding a knife.
“Put your hands up now or you’re gonna get shot. I’m not kidding,” Havlicek tells Placide as he and Sharpe stand outside the door, their guns pointed, authorities said.
Both of them repeatedly tell Placide to put his hands up and drop the knife. He doesn’t respond, however.
A third officer tells Havlicek: “Tase him.”
Havlicek swaps his gun for a Taser, then pushes the door open with his foot.
“Go, go!” Havlicek shouts at Sharpe while administering a shock to Placide.
Sharpe rushes Placide, who’s on the floor.
“Drop it! Drop it!” Sharpe reportedly shrieks as she struggles with Placide and is cut.
Havlicek tases Placide a second time, but he won't surrender the knife.
******
CLICK HERE for video of the incident: Englewood - Placide Recordings (NJ Attorney General's Office)
******
A single muffled shot is heard from Sharpe's gun.
She runs from the room.
Officers retrieve her weapon and tend to Placide while others call for an ambulance. Placide is brought into the hallway and life-saving efforts begin.
CPR was in progress as he was taken by ambulance to nearby Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in grave condition with a gunshot wound in the chest, responders told Daily Voice at the time.
Placide was pronounced dead at the hospital 9:17 a.m., Platkin reported.
The three wounded civilians were treated at an area hospital and released.
The bodycam videos show the officers arriving, speaking with one of the victims and then being directed to a hallway before they found Placide in a rear bedroom.
Placide, who was 6-foot-4 inches tall and weighed 300 pounds, played offensive tackle at Dwight Morrow High School. He was graduated in 2018.
“Officers issued multiple commands for him to drop the weapon,” Platkin said. “When Mr. Placide failed to comply, Officer Brian Havlicek deployed a taser.
“Officer Luana Sharpe discharged her firearm, fatally wounding Mr. Placide.
“Police and emergency medical personnel rendered first aid. Officer Sharpe was also treated for an injury to her hand from the knife.”
State law requires the state Attorney General's Office to investigate all deaths in New Jersey that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody," no matter what the circumstances are.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation by the attorney general's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas.
Once the investigation is complete, the results are presented to a grand jury.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Marlton-Evesham and receive free news updates.
