Queens cops repeatedly told 65-year-old to drop knife before fatally shooting him in back, body-cam video shows

A 65-year-old, knife-wielding man killed by NYPD officers in Queens shrugged off a blast from a taser and turned toward a group of people before he was fatally shot in the back, body-worn camera footage released by the state attorney general’s office Friday shows.
The two officers involved in the incident were not disciplined by the NYPD. The state attorney general’s office released the body camera footage as it continues its investigation into the matter.
“Yo! Drop the f—ing knife!” one officer screamed at Jesus Alberto Nunez Reyes as he threatened a woman while holding a small knife with a yellow handle at his side during the April 20 clash on Roosevelt Ave. near 103rd St. in Corona.
The two officers were patrolling Roosevelt Ave. about 4:20 a.m. when the heated argument between Reyes and a 49-year-old woman caught their attention.
Body camera footage shows the cops being directed to Reyes, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, as he argued with the woman in Spanish near a KFC. Several people were standing nearby as the two argued.
The officers, their weapons drawn, told Reyes to drop his knife more than 10 times, but he wouldn’t comply, the footage shows. Instead, he briefly glared at the officers before turning to the woman, though never raising the knife.
The woman pushed Reyes away at least twice during their argument, which went on for about 10 minutes before police arrived, witnesses told the Daily News.
“They were screaming a lot,” one witness, who only wanted to be identified as Marco, said. “I heard the lady asking for help.”
One of the cops fired a taser at Reyes, but he turned to his side just as the prongs deployed.
After more repeated commands, Reyes turned and walked away from the woman and the officers toward three people standing nearby, while still holding the knife.
One of the officers fired his gun three times, hitting Reyes in the back as the people he was walking toward scrambled out of the way. The last shot was fired after Reyes had already fallen face down onto the sidewalk.
“I heard the police say, ‘Stop! Stop!’ And then I heard the gunshots,” Marco said. “[It was] fast. Fast,” he said. “Boom! Boom! Boom!”
EMS rushed Reyes to Elmhurst Hospital, where he died. The woman was not injured and was questioned by detectives, cops said.
Hours later, the corner was still littered with wads of blood-soaked toilet paper, a discarded baseball cap and Reyes’ jeans, which were cut off to get at one of the gunshot wounds.
Following the shooting, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said the two officers used a number of different methods to try to subdue Reyes before resorting to lethal force.
“The officers use the taser. The taser doesn’t work,” the chief said. “Then the officers use their weapons and stop the male.”
The April 20 incident came just a few weeks after the shooting of Police Officer Jonathan Diller, cops said.
The Queens officer was shot and killed in Rockaway, Queens, by an ex-con, who was also wounded in the ensuing firefight.
Diller had asked Guy Rivera to step out of a parked car on Mott Ave. near Smith Place on March 25 when Rivera allegedly opened fire on the cop, fatally shooting him in the abdomen, according to police.
Two days later, police shot and killed 19-year-old Win Rozario, who called 911 on himself as he spiraled out of control during a “mental crisis,” the NYPD said.
Rozario charged at the officers with a pair of scissors when he was shot, according to authorities.
In another recent, high-profile, police-related shooting incident, on Sept. 15 police opened fire on a knife-wielding fare-beater on a subway platform in Brownsville, Brooklyn. As seen in police body-cam video, the man refused officers’ repeated orders to drop his knife, and a taser deployed by police failed to work, before the officers blasted a hail of bullets at him. Caught in the crossfire, a bystander was also seriously injured when he was shot in the head. His family is suing the city for $80 million.
Asked for comment on the newly released body-cam video of Reyes’ shooting by police, Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said cops did what was needed to “stop the threat.”
“This individual was wielding a deadly weapon and was a danger to every person on that street,” Hendry told the News. “These police officers had to act fast to protect the public. They gave numerous commands and deployed a taser before they were forced to make a split-second decision to stop the threat. The investigation into this incident needs to consider all the facts and the officers’ efforts to save lives.”
For its part, the NYPD Press Department said, “The NYPD has not released findings in regard to the officer-involved shooting at this time.”