CW // Police Violence

Around 12:30 AM on July 9th, Buffalo Police Officers Ronald Ammerman and Jonathan Crawford pulled over Dae'von Roberts, a 25 year old Black man, for speeding and having tinted windows on the East Side of Buffalo. Roberts was driving a family members vehicle and had a 6 year old in the front seat.

Ammerman asked Roberts for his license which he explained he didn't have. He did provide the officer with a photo of his Georgia State ID on his phone. The officer went back to the police vehicle to check the ID. When the officer returned, he told Roberts that it wasn't a valid driver's license in New York State, even though Roberts had explained he lived in Georgia.

Ammerman then told Roberts that he was going to run his name a different way. Without consent for a search, the officer proceeded to reach his arm through the open drivers side window and opened Robert's door. The officer continued to hold the door open and told Roberts to put his phone down. As Roberts put his phone down he put the vehicle in drive. The officer continued to hold onto the door that he had just opened as Roberts accelerated. Ammerman faught Roberts for control of the vehicle, pulled out his gun while still holding on to the vehicle, and fired multiple rounds towards Roberts and in the same direction of the 6 year old child. Roberts tried to push Ammerman off as he fired. He then lunged towards the direction of the gun fire throwing himself in the opposite direction of the child into the middle of the street.

Roberts continued to bleed out in the street. He was transported to Erie County Medical Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Outcome

Both officers are on mandatory administrative leave while the police investigates itself. The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation (OSI) has opened a special investigation into the killing of Dae'von.

Dae'von Roberts is half-brother of Jaylen Griffin who went missing in 2020. Despite a relentless search by family and community and being labeled a "runaway," Jaylen was found deceased in the attic of a home only 5 miles from his home with a history of dead bodies four years after he went missing. Jaylen appeared to have been deceased for a considerable amount of time. Jaylen and Dae'von’s mother, passed away in September from what is described as a “broken heart.”

Individuals organized outside of Hochstetter Hall at UB's North Campus to call for a ceasefire to the genocide in Gaza and for the University at Buffalo and the UB Foundation to divest from Israel. Specifically, SUNY Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) “wants financial divestment of all stocks, funds, partnerships, endowments and other monetary instruments from companies complicit in human rights abuse in Palestine, an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and universities, and they demand financial investments into education on Palestinian culture, literature, social movements, history and diaspora.”

After arriving at Capen Hall, protesters began setting up tents in the lawn next to Hochstetter Hall. An officer speaking through a loudspeaker ordered the protesters to disassemble those tents and place them on a nearby sidewalk within 20 minutes or face arrest. They cited a university policy from 2020 that “prohibits indoor and outdoor encampments” and “overnight assemblies.” Three students driving a U-Haul van with additional wooden pallets for the encampment were ordered to drive away from the crowd.

In response to the order to break up the camp, protesters booed the officers, shouting that UB was “our school” and that they were “legally allowed to remain for 12 hours.” The protesters still complied with the police order and removed their tents, transitioning to a sit-in.

At 8 p.m., police ordered the protesters gathered outside of Hochstetter to disperse before 8:22 p.m. or face arrest. Shortly after, University Campus Police, New York State Police, Erie County Sheriff Deputies, Buffalo Police, Amherst Police, Kenmore Police, both town and city Tonawanda Police, Lancaster Police, Cheektowaga Police, Orchard Park Police, West Seneca Police and Evans Police descended on the encampment specifically targeting Muslim students who were wrapping up prayers. A UB spokesperson said that UB requested the outside officers come “as a precaution” and to “provide UPD with additional support if needed.”

Most protesters remained in place with locked arms as police closed in, chanting “free Palestine” and “end genocide.” Others were arrested and placed into marked police cars or onto a UB Stampede bus. Police chased the crowd toward Mary Talbert Way, continuing to make arrests. Multiple officers tackled protesters. One officer was filmed pushing a demonstrator’s face into the ground.

There was a ratio of at least 2:1 cop:protestor. A female student's hijab was unraveled as she was forcibly restrained. One protestor's head was slammed into a door and had to be treated at the hospital for his injuries. A 67 year old man also had to be treated at the hospital for an injury to his arm.

One non-UPD officer pushed a Spectrum editor attempting to film the arrests and told him to "get the f—k out of here." When the editor identified himself as media, the officer said, "I don't care."

A small number of protesters briefly barricaded themselves in Capen Hall, which houses many of UB’s administrative offices. A Stampede bus carrying roughly 10 detained protesters left campus around 9 p.m. The protesters inside could be heard chanting “free Palestine” as the bus drove by Hochstetter. After protesters had largely dispersed, police returned to the site of the attempted encampment and Founders Plaza. They confiscated belongings left at the site.

Outcome

UB claims 15 arrests were made. Protest organizers said that the actual number is 18. According to UB, the charges that were filed included:

• Loitering

• Trespass

• Disorderly conduct

• Resisting arrest

All but two individuals who did face charges, have had them dismissed.

Though there were no announced counter-protests, some Jewish Student Union members laughed at the pro-Palestine demonstrators. One did push-ups next to the protest. While police were arresting demonstrators, two individuals held up an Israeli flag. One shouted, “F—k those terrorists.”

One UB student said: "I feel like what they teach us in the class, and what they've taught us our whole lives about how we have freedom of speech, how we're in a democracy, just went out the window. We are out here trying to exercise our rights and those rights are being violated. It makes me feel angry against the president because I'm genuinely wondering, 'Where are you?' Your students are being violently arrested."

Another student said: "I'm hoping that at some point UB divests, I hope at some point that we see some change, but this is the situation right now and we have to fight somehow."

Buffalo Police Officers Joshua Slupinski and Andrew Lewis fired 20 rounds at Edward Holmes, hitting him twice after Holmes attempted to discharge a round and then lowered his 12-gauge shotgun. Officers told Holmes to put down the gun several times, but no other de-escalation tactics were used. The shotgun malfunctioned when Holmes tried to fire a round, becoming jammed in the receiver. It is believed that this is what led Holmes to lift the gun at a 45-degree angle in an attempt to clear the obstruction.

Holmes, who died at the scene, just minutes earlier had phoned the Ferry-Fillmore District police station just moments earlier from his cellphone to report an armed individual in the roadway.

Outcome

Both officers were been put on administrative leave. No other publicly available information has been released regarding disciplinary action.

Police officers responded to a call regarding an attempted suicide on Tonawanda St. Jon Battison, a 36-year-old man, was observed with a long pellet gun aimed at his own head. He never directed it towards the police.

Battison asked the officers whether they were going to shoot him given that he was holding a gun to his own head. Subsequently, the officers shouted at Battison to lower the pellet gun, and no further efforts at deescalation were undertaken.

One officer declared an intent to shoot. "OK," responded Battison, maintaining the pellet gun pointed at his own head.

Outcome

Battison was taken by ambulance to Erie County Medical Center, where he was listed in critical but stable condition and was held in police custody, with charges on criminal possession of weapons.

The officer was temporarily placed on administrative leave and faced no charges.

A 30-year-old man was allegedly attempting to leave a CVS store with items he didn't pay for. An off-duty Buffalo Police officer working as the store security guard shot the man, hitting him in the hand. He was transported to ECMC for what according to police were non-life-threatening injuries.

Outcome

No publicly available information has been released regarding disciplinary action.

Buffalo Police Officer's recklessly left a sniper rifle on a tripod unattended at the edge of a rooftop overlooking a St. Patrick's Day Parade, and it fell to the street after an alleged gust of wind. The rifle fell within feet of parade spectators. It was then secured by another officer and removed from the scene.

Outcome

Buffalo Police confirmed the incident saying it did happen, and that Internal Affairs will look into the matter. No other information regarding disciplinary action has been publicly released.

Buffalo Police Officer James McAndrew grabbed a 32-year-old man and shoved him into the side of a staircase, damaging the railings. McAndrew also pushed a woman who tried to get between him and the other man.

Outcome

McAndrew was arrested and temporarily suspended by the department without pay. He pled not guilty and was released on his own recognizance, according to court records. He was charged with two misdemeanors – fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree trespassing – as well as second-degree harassment.

13 days before a white supremacist lynched ten Black people in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, Police Captain and head the Behavioral Health Team, Amber Beyer read aloud a Facebook post by a resident with a mental illness that the behavioral team was going to check on. In the post, the resident freely used a racial slur that targets Black people. Beyer yelled out the word as she read the post to members of her team,

In her racist rant, Beyer said Black cops were more likely to cheat on their wives than white cops and she’d be suspicious if she saw a Black man in her neighborhood. She claimed white police officers suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from working in Black neighborhoods, but Black officers did not, because they were more accustomed to violent crime. Beyer told Black officers they should try to understand how the criminality of Black people justified some racism. Beyer offered these opinions on May 2 in the Behavioral Health Team’s office in police headquarters on Court Street.

Captain Beyer did not apologize and said she had just been repeating what her husband, a patrol lieutenant, had stated.

Outcome

A lawsuit was filed in federal court by two Buffalo police officers and a civilian mental health clinician. The civil rights complaint is still being litigated.

Beyer was put on a 30-day unpaid suspension. She no longer heads the Behavioral Health Team and has been reassigned.

The Behavioral Health Team pairs police officers with mental health clinicians to respond to calls regarding people having mental health crises.

30-year-old Dominique Thomas experienced a mental health crisis and was shot by two Buffalo police officers multiple times outside his apartment building on Hertel Avenue.

CW: While at a Black Lives Matter protest, 75-year old peace activist Martin Gugino approached a line of riot police stopping in front of the them to talk, one officer yelled “push him back”; one officer pushed his arm into Gugino’s chest, while another extended his baton toward him with both hands. Gugino feel backward, with blood immediately leaking from his right ear. An officer leaned down to examine him, but another officer then pulled the first officer away. Several other officers walked by Gugino, motionless on the ground, without checking on him.

Outcome

The two officers were immediately suspended by Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood. An Internal Affairs investigation was completed. The District Attorney's office of John Flynn charged the two officers that pushed Gugino with felony assault. However, a grand jury chose not to indict. Martin is continuing to litigate a civil suit against the City of Buffalo.