Cops Not Charged In Fatal Shooting Of NJ Activist Najee Seabrooks

PATERSON, NJ — Two Paterson police officers will not face criminal charges in the 2023 shooting death of activist Najee Seabrooks, a state grand jury has decided.

Police officers Anzore Tsay and Jose Hernandez both fired their service weapons after an hours-long standoff with Seabrooks, who had barricaded himself in an apartment bathroom during a mental health crisis. The 31-year-old worked with the Paterson Healing Collective, a violence intervention program, and had called 911 for help on the morning of March 3, 2023.

The New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which took over the Paterson Police Department less than a month later, released a lengthy statement Tuesday about Seabrooks' life, the grand jury investigation, and the reforms made after his death.

"A victim of a non-fatal drive-by shooting in 2021, Mr. Seabrooks would later dedicate himself to improving public safety in his hometown," the AG's Office said in part. "The father of a young daughter, Mr. Seabrooks was known for his kind nature, warm smile, and his dedication to making the City of Paterson safer."

It is not typical for the Attorney General's office to release statements like this about the victims of fatal police shootings.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey said it was "deeply disappointed" no officers would be charged in his killing.

“Najee Seabrooks should be alive today," said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha.

"When the disturbing videos of the deadly encounter were released, it was an urgent reminder that meaningful investment in non-law enforcement responses to mental health calls is an immediate and life-saving need," Sinha continued. "New Jersey must make every effort to prevent the unnecessary escalation that happens far too often when police engage with these calls for help."

Seabrooks' family filed a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this month, claiming police officers did not take proper steps to de-escalate the situation and provoked him.

A GoFundMe in Seabrooks' memory, which benefited his daughter Sophia, raised more than $45,000.

The Paterson Police department is still under the control of AG Matthew Platkin's office, though city officials have filed a lawsuit arguing that Platkin overstepped his boundaries when he took over the department.

'What I really need is help'

Body camera footage shows Seabrooks’ family members let officers into the apartment just before 8 a.m. on March 3, and begin speaking to him through the bathroom door.

“People are trying to kill me, I need an escort right now,” he tells them, and expresses disbelief when the officers tell them they are Paterson police. He asks for a sergeant, and when police ask how he is going to hurt himself, he tells them he has a “pocket rocket” gun and knives.

His mother and other family members told police he was acting abnormally and may have been having a bad reaction to something he smoked, officials said. Body camera footage shows his mother trying to talk to him through the door. Seabrooks made 911 calls to other agencies, as well, claiming Paterson officers were holding him hostage. He also asked Paterson dispatchers to send more officers.

Crisis negotiators and the Emergency Response Team arrived throughout the morning, as well as EMS from the Paterson Fire Department.

Seabrooks had been contacting friends and asking them to come, but Platkin's office and police officers said they could not let his work mentor or his mother in because Seabrooks had said he had knives and a gun. They told him he could talk to the mentor on the phone, and could be taken to them once he left the bathroom.

“During this time, Mr. Seabrooks vacillated from expressing a willingness to cooperate with the police and accept the help being offered, to saying that he was going to die in the bathroom and take one of the officers with him,” Platkin’s office said.

Officers heard a crash at 10:15 a.m. and water "began flooding the apartment," Platkin said. Officers tried to break into the bathroom when they had not heard from Seabrooks, but it was barricaded, Platkin added.

He's starting a fire," one officer says as the others ask Seabrooks why he is burning something in the bathroom.

"What I really need is help," Seabrooks says later in the video, after the officers get the door open. "You're trying to kill me."

Seabrooks threw several items at police, including a portion of the toilet lid and some kind of liquid that sprayed onto officers, Platkin said.

Seabrooks also tells officers he was "prepared for a shootout" in the body camera footage from police. He screams several times and tells officers to call 911.

Seabrooks opened the bathroom door periodically to speak with officers, and a family member arrived to persuade him to come out, said officials. Three ERT members shot sponge-tipped projectiles at him about 15 times, Platkin said, which hit him but were not effective.

Footage from the moments before the officers fired shows them speaking to him while the door is open, asking him to stop putting the knives to his skin and set them down. The sound of water is audible through parts of the video, as is a smoke alarm going off for several minutes.

The officers, carrying tactical shields, were cajoling Seabrooks to come out and speak to someone.

"Nobody's going to let you die," an officer tells him. "Come on Naj, put the knives on the floor."

After he asks to talk to his mother, they tell him they will take him to her, body camera footage shows.

"Come on man, let's take you to your mom, let her talk to you," one says. "I'm sure she don't want to see you like this."

Around 12:35 p.m., an officer's body camera captures Seabrooks coming quickly out of the bathroom with a knife in his hand. One yells "drop it" before officers discharge their weapons.

Police recovered two knives in the bathroom, and a third inside a utility closet next to the bathroom, according to Platkin. Emergency medical personnel rendered first aid at the scene before taking Seabrooks to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center. He died at 12:51 p.m. that day.

His death lead to an outcry for police reform, particularly when officers encounter someone in a mental health emergency. In 2024, Gov. Murphy signed the “Seabrooks-Washington Community-Led Crisis Response Act,” which established a Community Crisis Response Pilot Program. That law is also named for Andrew Washington, who was fatally shot by Jersey City police in 2023.

The statewide Use of Force policy was also changed in the wake of Seabrooks' death, directing law enforcement officers to call trained crisis negotiators for any situation with a barricaded person, connect with mental health professionals who can help, and for tactical teams to be equipped with less-lethal weapons.