Police Shot And Killed NJ Activist Without Warning, Lawsuit Claims

PATERSON, NJ — Heavily-armed police officers only escalated the situation when a Paterson man in crisis called for help and did not give warning before they fatally shot him, his family claims in a lawsuit.

Najee Seabrooks, 31, had barricaded himself in the bathroom of his brother's apartment on March 3, 2023 because he believed someone was trying to kill him. Officers and members of the Emergency Response Team (ERT) responded to the home, and ended up shooting him after an almost five-hour standoff.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by Seabrooks' cousin Nicole Ricketts, claims police officers caused unnecessary distress and failed to use proper de-escalation techniques, or call for trained mental health providers to intervene.

“People are trying to kill me, I need an escort right now,” Seabrooks told officers who arrived that Friday morning, saying that he had a gun and two knives he would use to hurt himself.

Ricketts filed the lawsuit on Monday, March 3 in federal court on behalf of his estate, and also named his mother Melissa Carter as a plaintiff.

According to the suit, Carter was waiting outside the apartment with other family members when she heard the gunshots and "remains haunted by the events and sounds of that tragic day."

The lawsuit names six Paterson Police officers, the city, and Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale as defendants.

Seabrooks was a member of the Paterson Healing Collective, a violence intervention program. The lawsuit claims police "repeatedly turned away" his friends and colleagues, even after Seabrooks texted them begging for help.

"Instead of ensuring Mr. Seabrooks’s wellbeing, overly aggressive PPD officers created the very confrontation that led to his death," the lawsuit states.

Particularly, the presence of ERT officers with riot shields and high-powered firearms caused his emotional distress to intensify, according to the lawsuit. Their refusal to allow him to speak with his Paterson Healing Collective colleagues "left the young Black man who they knew to be suffering from delusions and paranoia, alone, afraid, and literally staring down the barrels of the ERT’s threatening firearms,” the lawsuit states.

Seabrooks also began harming himself with a knife, which body camera footage shows he had in his hand when he exited the bathroom, before two officers discharged their weapons. The lawsuit also states that officers handcuffed him before calling for paramedics, despite him not being accused of a crime.

Body camera footage shows Seabrooks had told police he would harm himself and also them, and appeared unconvinced that Paterson officers who responded were actually police. But he also agreed several times to come with police and kept asking for help, wanting them to connect him with his mom right before two officers shot him.

A Paterson Police spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, and the city also declined to comment.