There will be no criminal charges against the Buffalo police officer who shot and injured a man who was holding what appeared to be a gun, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn announced Thursday.
The officer involved shooting happened on Sept. 23, when Buffalo police officers responded to a call of a suicidal individual inside a Tonawanda Street home.
Responding to the call, officers entered the home and made their way to the third-floor attic where the individual was found holding what appeared to be a long gun under his chin. Police-worn body camera footage shows that the officers instructed the individual to drop the weapon several times. When the man did not follow officers’ commands, officer Kareem Johnson fired multiple shots, with one hitting the man in the chest, according to Flynn.
"I am looking at it from a criminal standpoint - did the police officers commit any crime in shooting this individual? And I have come to conclusion that they did not. That they acted in self-defense, that they had reason to believe that their safety was potentially in danger," Flynn said.
The man was transported to the Erie County Medical Center and survived.
The weapon the man was holding turned out to be a pellet gun, though officers on scene did not know that at the time, Flynn said.
The Buffalo Police Department will now open up its own investigation, according to Buffalo's Police Commissioner, Joseph Gramaglia, speaking days after the incident last fall.
"At the conclusion of the district attorney's investigation, then the internal affairs investigation will pick up and continue on from that point, where we will conduct a review of the use of force which is also a normal course of business," he said.
Johnson was placed on administrative leave as per departmental protocol, according to Gramaglia.
