RICK PFEIFFER
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
(TNS)
NIAGARA FALLS — A pair of city patrol officers will not face charges in the death of a man during an August 2023 shooting incident on Niagara Avenue.
Niagara Falls Police shared body cam footage of Thursday night’s fatal shooting incident on Niagara Avenue during a press conference late Friday morning.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday that her Office of Special Investigation (OSI) concluded that Officers Ian Sitek and Kayla Richards were justified in their use of deadly physical force against Benjamin Rivers, after he shot at them as they investigated a call of “shots heard, possible shots fired.”
In a 13-page report that relied on a “review of body-worn camera footage, interviews with involved officers and civilian witnesses,” OSI determined that “Mr. Rivers had allegedly been shooting a gun in public and then fired at an officer, putting both the officers and any bystanders in danger.”
The state prosecutors said, “Under these circumstances, based on the law and the evidence, a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officers’ use of force to stop Mr. Rivers was justified, and therefore OSI determined that criminal charges could not be pursued in this matter.”
Under New York’s justification law, Article 35 of the state Penal Law, a police officer may “use physical force to the extent they reasonably believe it to be necessary when arresting or attempting to arrest someone for a crime. Article 35 also says that the use of deadly physical force is justified when “the officer reasonably believes it to be necessary to defend themselves or another person.”
Police Superintendent Nicholas Ligammari called the attorney general’s conclusions “correct.”
“It confirms what we knew early on, that everything pointed to (the shooting) was justified,” Ligammari said. “Now (the officers) can move on with their lives without this hanging over them.”
The shooting took place on Aug. 3, 2023. Richards and Sitek both responded to a call from police dispatchers, at 9:34 p.m., of a report of “shots heard” on the 900 block of Niagara Avenue.
Richards, who had been on the job for 26 months at the time of the incident, was the first officer on the scene, 90 seconds after the first call from police dispatchers. Sitek, who had been employed with Niagara Falls Police Department for 23 months at that time, arrived just 20 seconds later.
Video and audio from Richards’ body-worn camera show her getting out of her patrol vehicle and a woman can be heard yelling, “Right now, he shot at my car.” Richards asks, “Who?” and the woman responds, “Him.” as she points to a man standing in front of the Estella Apartments building.
The man standing in front of the apartment building was later identified as Rivers.
Richards, who told investigators that Rivers had his hands in his pockets as she walked toward him, can be heard yelling, “Show your hands! Show your hands!” Her body cam video shows Richards raising up her gun and continuing to yell at Rivers to show his hands.
Video from Sitek’s body-worn camera shows him arriving at the scene, getting out of his car and running toward Richards, while also yelling for Rivers to “Show your hands.”
Rivers can be seen in the body camera video raising his hands and, Richards said, as he did she saw a gun in his right hand. Richards is then heard repeatedly pleading with Rivers to, “Put the gun down! Put the gun down!”
Sitek is heard repeating that command before, and a split second later, the sound of a gunshot rings out. The video captures what appears to be two muzzle flashes from River’s gun, followed by rapid return fire from the two police officers.
Rivers then crumples to the ground. The entire shootout lasts just four seconds.
A .22 caliber handgun was found lying next to Rivers body. Crime Scene Unit (CSI) detectives said the Luger revolver had three out of a possible six bullets still in its cylinder.
The detectives also recovered some two dozen spent shell casings. One bullet, determined to have come from Rivers handgun, penetrated the rear driver’s side door of Richards’ patrol car.
Investigators said the bullet missed Richards’ head “by inches.”
Other officers who arrived at the scene performed CPR on Rivers as he lay on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. An autopsy showed that he had suffered gunshot wounds to his left lung, kidneys, spleen, large intestine and spinal cord.
Rivers, 53, originally from the Bronx, but who had been living in Niagara Falls, was taken to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
(c)2024 the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.)
Visit the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.) at lockportjournal.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
