THE BRONX, NY — For the first time in NYPD history, the department has released body-cam footage of cops shooting and killing a civilian in NYC. The killing of 31-year-old Bronx resident Miguel Richards earlier this month was also the first officer-involved shooting ever captured on an NYPD body cam, according to the department. Officers from select precincts began wearing the cams in April as part of a pilot program that will eventually go citywide.
As the NYPD claimed from the start, officers who showed up to Richards’ Pratt Avenue apartment in the Edenwald neighborhood around 4 p.m. on Sept. 6 can be seen in their body-cam footage (included below) telling him to drop the knife in his hand during their 15- to 20-minute encounter.
The department also claimed Richards then pulled out a toy gun with his other hand and pointed it at the officers in his doorway — prompting them to shoot him 16 times.
It’s impossible to make out whether Richards is holding a toy gun in the footage. However, he does appear to move slightly closer to the cops in his doorway right before one of them steps into the room and deploys his stun gun. Seconds later, another two officers open live fire.
The NYPD released photos to the media later that same night of Richards’ alleged knife and fake gun:
Richards’ landlord called the NYPD earlier that night to report that he hadn’t seen his tenant in weeks. When cops arrived at his third-floor apartment, they said they “were met by a 31 year-old male brandishing a knife in his left hand, while concealing his right hand behind his back.”
According to the NYPD: “The officers asked the individual if was holding a firearm, whether or not it was real, and then ordered him to drop it. The officers told the individual that they did not want to hurt him. Again, the officers received no compliance. The individual then proceeded to raise his right hand with the gun in the direction of the officers, at which point one officer deployed the taser and another two officers simultaneously discharged their service weapons.”
Richards didn’t have a prior criminal record, nor a history of mental illness, the New York Daily News reported. “He did not deserve to die this way,” his distraught father, 61-year-old Belvett Richards, told the newspaper. “He was murdered… cold blooded.”
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark is currently investigating the shooting.
The video below is a compilation of body-cam footage from the two officers who shot Richards, identified by the Daily News as Mark Fleming and Redmond Murphy. And below that, we’ve included individual streams from all four officers at the scene.
While the footage doesn’t explicitly show Richards’ body after he’s killed, the entire encounter is disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.