No police body camera footage exists from a September 2020 incident where a Jersey City cop shot an allegedly armed assailant in the wrist, an official said.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The incident occurred long before New Jersey Attorney General Directive 2021-5 went into effect in May, mandating police body cameras for officers on duty in most circumstances.
“The investigation is still pending and there was no body worn camera footage,” HCPO spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill told HCV in an email yesterday after an inquiry asking about the status of the investigation and related body camera footage
On September 8th of last year, Jersey City officials held an impromptu press conference about two hours after a police officer, who has still not been identified, shot an armed assailant near the intersection of Union Street and Martin Luther King Drive.
Public Safety Director James Shea said at the time that the 21-year-old assailant was observed “obtaining a firearm” from a car and place it in his pocket as a police unit was conducting a surveillance of the area.
He also said both he and the officer in question received medical treatment, though no one sustained serious injuries. Shea added that surveillance footage from the incident would be released after the HCPO’s investigation had concluded.
The following day, the Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez released preliminary details that said that Korron Benthall was shot int he wrist after he “picked up and raised” a gun.
He was charged with with unlawful possession of a weapon, a second-degree crime, and possession of prohibited weapons and devices (hollow nose bullets – a fourth-degree crime – after a semi-automatic handgun was recovered from the immediate scene.
There is no police body camera footage of a Kearny jail riot at the county’s maximum security unit in August, according to an Open Publics Record Act response from the county that took about two months to obtain.
