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RPD releases body worn video of incident where a suspect was fatally shot by police on Murray St.

The outside of the Rochester City Public Safety Building
Emily Hunt
/
WXXI News
Rochester City Public Safety Building

Rochester Police have released body worn video from an officer involved in the incident Sunday where the officer fatally shot a suspect who appeared to have a gun.

Chief David Smith released the video at a news conference on Wednesday. It showed the beginning of the incident, when RPD was following up on a report from a 911 caller about a man with a gun on Murray Street at about 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

At one point, while the officer was questioning a man, later identified as 46-year old Todd Novick of the city, on Murray Street, the suspect took off running. During the foot chase, the chief says the man pulled out what appeared to be a handgun, but was later determined to be a replica gun.

“Under our general orders and New York state penal law, officers are justified to use deadly physical force in defense of themselves or others,” said Smith. “As I said on Sunday, preliminarily, it appears to me that the officer was in line with those regulations.”

Novick was shot while he was running away from police but had the replica gun in his hand. Smith said the video shows that Novick did not drop the gun until after the officer fired his gun at him.

“At that point, you'll see the officer draws his weapon, the officer gives commands to drop the gun,” said Smith. “The suspect does not comply at that time, shots are fired, and only after the shots are fired, and the suspect is going down is when you see his gun or replica gun as we have determined it was, to hit the ground.”

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Smith said there are still a lot of questions to be answered, including why Novick was carrying a replica gun, and why he decided to run away from the officer.

The officer involved in that shooting and another officer are currently on administrative leave.

The RPD’s internal affairs division is looking into the shooting as is the NYS Attorney General’s office.

The Rochester Police Accountability Board is doing its own investigation into the incident.

Mayor Malik Evans released a statement expressing condolences for the family of the person who was killed and said he is thankful there were no other injuries. And Evans also said, “I am grateful to the men and women in law enforcement for their efforts to keep our community safe.”

The mayor said the city is actively cooperating with the attorney general’s investigation as well as conducting its own internal investigation.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.