JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (WABC) — An investigation is underway after a man was killed in a police-involved shooting in Jersey City.
Officers responded to a home on Randolph Avenue near Bramhall Avenue just before 2:30 p.m. Sunday after EMS requested police.
Officials say one Jersey City police officer fired his service weapon, striking a man. The man was then transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. His family has identified him as Andrew Jerome Washington, 52.
Washington’s family says he was suffering from a mental health crisis and called for help, but his family did not expect a SWAT team to confront their loved one, who was reportedly in an ‘agitated state.’
His family said something similar happened to him years ago and it did not end well, however this time it was far worse. The family says they called a crisis center on Saturday afternoon that had treated him as recently as a few days ago for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia because they were worried he was released too soon. His family said that when he was taking his medication he was fine and nonviolent, but he had a ‘terrible illness.’
When police showed up at the scene, the family told him they needed help from mental health professionals, but they say that is not what happened.
“They were talking to him. He was yelling at them. Because we were like, let us go in, let us talk to him, let us try to go inside. Because then they see swat people coming. And we were like why are you calling swat? And they go in and then we had two shots. We thought they had shot him with a pellet gun or something,” said his aunt, Doris Ervin.
“They need to do better when it comes to mental patients. They need to be more compassionate and understanding when they act when they shoot someone and the family members are standing outside waiting to find out and they sit here for three hours and have to act like crazy fools for them to finally tell us that they killed our nephew,” added his aunt, Lisa Mendez.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office says it is investigating as it does any time someone dies in an encounter with a law enforcement officer, and that it was EMS personnel on the scene who requested help from the Jersey City Police. They also say that the man shot died after having surgery about two hours later.
His family says Washington had survived a confrontation with police that ended in gunfire about 12 years ago, he was shot in the arm.
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