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An Elizabeth police officer fired a single shot to neutralize a man who swung a long-bladed knife at him inside a multi-family home, video of what became a fatal encounter shows.
Officer Steven Lazo and his partner were responding to a 911 call of an unwanted person involved in a dispute on Amity Street shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday, July 29, when the incident occurred.
After entering through a front door, they moved through the house toward the sounds of a woman screaming in a rear room, where two men were trying to restrain Estiben Alegria-Hurtado, a 42-year-old city resident, video from the incident shows.
Alegria-Hurtado breaks free and runs through a door to a stairwell with Lazo behind him. The woman is perilously close to them.
Alegria-Hurtado then swings the knife at Lazo, who fires one shot from his service weapon.
"He tried to kill me. He tried to kill me," the woman tells Lazo and his partner as they tend to Algeria-Hurtado. "He tried to f***ing kill me."
She apparently is the ex-girlfriend of Alegria-Hurtado's brother, authorities said.
An ambulance took Algeria-Hurtado to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced deceased at 11:26 p.m. Sunday, July 30, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.
Despite the circumstances, Platkin's office is required by state law and his own office's guidelines to thoroughly investigate any and all civilian deaths that occur in encounters with police.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas, the attorney general has said.
Part of the process involves releasing all 911 audio, police bodycam footage and video shot from surveillance cameras and/or cellphones to the family of the deceased -- and then the public -- as an investigation by Platkin’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) continues.
That was done in this case, the attorney general said in releasing the recordings on Monday, Aug. 14.
They can be found here: Elizabeth - Hurtado Recordings
Once the probe is completed, the results are presented to the grand jury “in a neutral, objective manner, and with appropriate transparency,” the attorney general has said.
The panel then renders a ruling on whether the incident was handled properly or criminal charges should be considered.
Platkin has noted, however, that a law enforcement officer "may use deadly force in New Jersey when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm."
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