For almost a minute, it appeared as if the cops were about to give the white man with the gun a pass to the dismay of the black witnesses who were recording, proclaiming they would have shot him had he been black.
But Paterson police opened fire 58 seconds into the video, killing the man who apparently was committing suicide by cop.
The victim has been identified as Luan Agolli, a 42-year-old financial advisor for Wells Fargo. At this time, it is not known what caused Agolli to want to take his own life but it likely was related to the coronavirus which has stress and anxiety levels soaring. Just last week, Agolli shared an article on LinkedIn on how to deal with coronavirus anxiety. The incident took place Thursday after police received a call about a man with a gun.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s office:
The investigation is being conducted by the Integrity Bureau within the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability and the New Jersey State Police Homicide Unit.
According to the preliminary investigation, uniformed officers from the Paterson Police Department responded at approximately 4:09 p.m. yesterday to a 9-1-1 call reporting a man with a gun in the first block of Carroll Street. When officers arrived, they encountered the subject, later identified as Agolli, who was armed with a handgun and walking in and around the intersection of Carroll and Harrison Streets. For several minutes, Agolli ignored repeated commands from the officers to drop his weapon and, instead, continued to walk in and out of the intersection, holding the gun in his hand and, at times, raising it. During the standoff, officers fired at Agolli, fatally wounding him. Emergency medical personnel responded and Agolli was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation is ongoing and being conducted pursuant to a law enacted in January 2019, Senate Bill 1036, which requires that the Attorney General’s Office conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody.
In the second video below, a woman is recording from an upstairs window. After more than two minutes of police refraining from firing their guns, the woman says, “boy, if he was black.”
Less than ten seconds later, at least four officers shot him more than ten times.
