Video: Buffalo police release body camera footage from fatal shooting on Reed Street
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Buffalo Police Department released body camera footage Monday showing what occurred in the moments before officers fatally shot a 58-year-old man Saturday morning on Reed Street.
Two officers shot at Edward Holmes after he discharged one round from a shotgun while standing in the middle of the street just before 10 a.m., the video shows.
Police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Monday he believed officers returning fire “absolutely was justified.”
“They were met with an armed individual, armed with a 12-guage shotgun, [who] fired directly at them,” Gramaglia said. “Yet these officers still were attempting to de-escalate, still telling him to drop the weapon, waited another approximately eight seconds until the gun was leveled at them a second time before they opened fire.”
The footage showed officers ordering Holmes to put his gun down multiples times before he shot at them. Officers returned fire after Holmes raised the gun a second time.
The two officers who fired their weapons — identified by Buffalo Police as Joshua Slupinski, a five-year veteran, and Andrew Lewis, who has been with the department for 18 months — shot a total of 20 rounds and hit Holmes twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. Slupinski fired 14 rounds and Lewis fired six.
After Holmes was hit, the video shows officers rendering CPR for several minutes and call for more medical aid.
Man fatally shot by Buffalo police identified, allegedly fired shotgun after officers arrived
During the investigation, Gramaglia said police detectives traced back the 911 call regarding a man with a gun and confirmed the call came from Holmes himself, posing as a witness. Gramaglia later added that the 911 call mentioned that the individual “may shoot” when officers arrive. Gramaglia said that he believes that the incident was ‘suicide by police.’
“Had it been dispatched with him calling in some kind of a mental health crisis, we could have started [behavioral officers] on the way,” Gramaglia said. “But the way this unfolded, this was a gun call and this is how numerous gun calls come in, and the response of those gun calls, I don’t see any change whatsoever in how the officers approached that call.”
Lewis and Slupinski were placed on administrative leave in accordance with standard police protocol. Gramaglia defended the officers’ use of lethal force, rather than shooting Holmes in the leg or another extremity.
“When you have someone who is armed with a deadly weapon, who is armed with a gun, you’re going to shoot until that threat is over,” Gramaglia said. “You have to be very careful when you’re shooting to do your best to aim for center mass and not hit an arm or a leg. These are also very tense, rapidly-escalating situations.”
The New York Attorney General’s Office has also begun its investigation into the incident, as it does with all fatal officer-involved shootings.
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Adam Gorski is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team in 2022. You can find more of his work here.
Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here.
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