On the morning of May 21, 2022, at approximately 5:00 AM, the Town of Tonawanda Police Department received a call from a passing motorist reporting significant property damage at Elmlawn Memorial Park, located on Delaware Avenue near the I-290 interchange. The caller stated that a vehicle had driven through the cemetery’s perimeter fencing and struck multiple trees.

Officer Michael Belluz arrived at the scene and discovered a tan 1995 Mercury Marquis sedan abandoned within the cemetery grounds. The vehicle had heavily damaged its front end after crashing into a tree. Approximately 60 feet of aluminum fencing was destroyed, and a tree was uprooted. Blood was observed on the vehicle’s airbag and armrest.

While no witnesses were on scene, a resident nearby reported hearing a loud boom around the time of the incident.

At 5:11 AM, Officer Mark Shell located a man walking in the vicinity of Gloucester and Bonnett Avenues with a bleeding hand. The individual was later identified as Christopher Bridgett, an off-duty officer with the Buffalo Police Department with a prior disciplinary history within the Department (6 complaints between 2017–2021, including two excessive force complaints and one off-duty incident). Body-camera footage showed that Bridgett initially denied involvement in the crash. He repeatedly claimed he was taking a late-night walk and later stated that a cousin had been driving the vehicle. After further questioning, Bridgett eventually admitted to being the sole occupant and driver at the time of the crash.

Despite Bridgett's admission and the presence of blood matching his injuries at the scene, officers did not conduct a field sobriety test, administer a breathalyzer, or issue a citation for leaving the scene of a property-damage accident. Bridgett declined medical treatment on-site and made no sworn statement.

Lieutenant Partyka placed his body camera in “covert mode” during a follow-up interaction with Bridgett, during which Bridgett admitted, “I f---ed up,” confirming he had been driving alone.

Captain Corey Flatau, who had been summoned to the scene off duty due to Bridgett’s status as a fellow officer, made the determination not to issue a ticket. Captain Flatau had a past DWI conviction (2018), also involving initial denial of being the driver in his own incident.

Outcome

Chief James P. Stauffiger later stated the decision to forgo citations fell within officer discretion. The accident report attributes the cause to “driver inattention/distraction.” The vehicle was towed, and insurance covered approximately $8,000 in damages to cemetery property.

Buffalo Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division reviewed the incident. No internal disciplinary action was taken. The Erie County District Attorney's Office was not notified of the event.

Dean Taylor, a 65-year-old Black man, stood on the sidewalk across the street from the scene of the drive-by shooting, recording the activity with his phone. Taylor continued to do so for some time, before Buffalo police officers Kyle T Moriarity and Christopher Bridgett decided they wanted him to stop. Moriarty approached Taylor and told him to move, according to testimony. Taylor replied that he had a right to stand on a public sidewalk and record the scene.

Taylor said an officer punched him in the face “three or four times” and tackled him to the ground. He lost consciousness, then came to “with a whole bunch of people” on him. He was handcuffed, wrestled into the back of a patrol car and taken downtown, where he was strip-searched and jailed overnight. The next day he was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration, harassment and disorderly conduct.

Outcome

The charges against Taylor were dismissed in city court a month later.

Taylor filed a complaint with the Buffalo Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division. In January 2020 then-Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood ruled Taylor’s allegation of excessive use of force “not sustained” — that is, there was not enough evidence to determine the officers’ guilt or innocence — but reprimanded the officers for “denying [Taylor his] first amendment rights.”

A month after that finding, Taylor sued the city, Lockwood, Moriarty, Bridgett and the other officers who piled on top of him. He accused them of assault, false arrest and imprisonment, and violating his constitutional rights.

Five years later, the case went to trial before a jury, which ruled in favor of the cops and the city. Taylor’s attorney, Blake Zaccagnino of the firm Shaw & Shaw, filed a post-trial motion asking DelMonte to set aside the jury’s decision, arguing that the jury’s verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence.

In overturning the verdict, the judge wrote the cops “knew the plaintiff was entirely within his constitutional rights to videotape” police activity at the scene of the shooting. He said the city’s attorneys failed to provide evidence that Taylor’s presence harassed or discomfited anyone — except perhaps Moriarity and Bridgett, who “did express their own personal internal distaste for what the plaintiff was doing,” DelMonte wrote.

“[T]here was no legally legitimate basis for any ‘reasonably prudent person’ to find or believe that probable cause existed to confront the plaintiff and place him under arrest,” DelMonte concluded.

DelMonte set aside the jury’s decision, found in favor of Taylor, and ordered a new trial solely for the purpose of determining how much the city should pay in damages.