Controversy Surrounds Fatal Police Shooting in Paterson, NJ

Body camera footage from a Paterson, N.J., police officer captures a standoff on March 3 between Najee Seabrooks and police. Seabrooks, a 31-year-old violence intervention activist, was fatally shot during a mental health crisis. The footage shows that not all options were exhausted, and for many advocates, it raises even more questions about why lethal force was used at all. Seabrooks had called members of the Paterson Healing Collective (PHC), a group dedicated to providing support for survivors of violence, during the standoff asking them to intervene, but officers refused. The case has exposed a stark divide between members of the community and most city leaders, many of whom have remained tight-lipped since Seabrooks’s death.