New video emerges of initial confrontation that led to fatal traffic-stop shooting by rookie Newark cop
05/24/2019 5:02 am PDT
via WPIX:
NEWARK, N.J. —- (WPIX) -- New video released Thursday shows the tense, initial traffic stop that ultimately led a rookie Newark police officer to fatally shoot a man.
Officer Jovanny Crespo, 26, has been charged with aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault, two counts of possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose and two counts of official misconduct for the Jan. 28 shooting, officials said.
But Crespo was not the officer who initially stopped a car driven by the man who was gunned down, Gregory Griffin, 46.
The new video released Thursday shows another cop, Officer Valeria Sanchez, stopping Griffin earlier that night near Clinton Avenue and Thomas Street. That confrontation quickly grew heated.
"Turn off the vehicle," she said in the video. "Turn off the vehicle. Turn it off."
Griffin didn't comply. She told him six more times to turn off the car. He asked why and she didn't explain.
After Griffin rolled up the car window, Sanchez pounded on it.
"Open the window, open the door," she said, then radioed for another unit to respond to the scene.
Video shows Griffin rolling down the window.