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Dedrick Jamon James

Age : 24

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 09/15/2021

Location : 6 Vinewood Place

City : Rochester

County : Monroe

State : New York

Agency : United States Marshals Service; New York State Police; Rochester Police Department; Monroe County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Not disclosed

Cause of Death : Suicide

Event : Suicide under police duress

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 09/15/2021, 24-year-old Dedrick James died from a gunshot wound during a struggle with members of the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force who entered a residence at 6 Vinewood Place in Rochester to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. The task force included personnel from the U.S. Marshals Service, New York State Police, Rochester Police Department and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
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The reason for the attempted arrest is well documented. New York State Police had investigated injuries suffered by James' two-year-old son in Wayne County beginning in December 2020. An investigator subsequently obtained an arrest warrant charging James with second-degree assault. After unsuccessful efforts to locate James, the warrant was referred to the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
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On the morning of 09/15/2021, task-force officers went to the Vinewood Place residence after determining that James was there. Three officers approached the front door, which was answered by James' grandmother. James came out of a bedroom and approached the officers but ran into a bathroom after officers told him he was under arrest.
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Officers followed James into the bathroom. According to the subsequent New York Attorney General investigation, one officer attempted to restrain James from behind in a bear hug, and both men fell into the bathtub. Police alleged that James had a loaded Smith & Wesson .380-caliber handgun in his hand and pointed it toward the officer's head. A struggle for control of the gun followed.
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During that physical struggle, the handgun discharged once. The bullet struck James in the chest. Task-force personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but James died at the residence. None of the officers fired their service weapons.
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The initial reporting therefore left an important question requiring forensic resolution: although the fatal bullet came from the handgun attributed to James, the gun discharged while James and an officer were physically struggling over it. The New York Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation opened an independent investigation the day after James' death.
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That investigation was ultimately completed and publicly released on 08/26/2022. OSI interviewed participating officers and James' grandmother and reviewed physical evidence and ballistics testing. Investigators determined that the fatal projectile and cartridge casing were consistent with James' Smith & Wesson .380 pistol and that the evidence established the gun discharged during the struggle.
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OSI ultimately classified James' fatal wound as self-inflicted and concluded that the evidence did not support criminal charges against any of the officers. The Attorney General therefore closed the criminal investigation without prosecution.
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The designation "self-inflicted" requires some context in this case. James did not die from a conventional suicide. He was shot by the handgun attributed to him while physically struggling with law enforcement officers attempting to arrest and disarm him. The death therefore occurred directly during police physical restraint and an attempted arrest, even though investigators concluded that no officer fired the fatal shot.
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The Attorney General's investigation provides considerably more definitive evidence than the preliminary police statements available immediately after James' death. It established the origin of the fatal projectile through ballistics, interviewed a civilian witness who was present at the residence and reconstructed the physical struggle preceding the gunshot.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The individual task-force officers involved in the physical struggle with James were not publicly identified by name in the sources reviewed for this update.
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The multi-agency nature of the operation is important. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force operating in Rochester included federal marshals as well as personnel assigned from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Rochester Police Department, New York State Police and other agencies. Monroe County described its participating deputies as federally deputized for task-force operations.
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The Rochester Police Department was already undergoing extraordinary scrutiny over deaths involving police restraint when James died. Daniel Prude had died in March 2020 after Rochester officers restrained him during a mental health crisis, placed a spit hood over his head and held him against the pavement. The Monroe County Medical Examiner ruled Prude's death a homicide caused by complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint. Release of the body-camera recordings in September 2020 triggered widespread protests and a major departmental leadership crisis.
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That history does not establish misconduct by the unidentified task-force officers involved with James. Unlike the Prude case, James' death received a subsequent state-level investigation specifically examining whether criminal conduct by law enforcement caused his death, and OSI concluded that the forensic and witness evidence supported the account that James' own firearm discharged during the struggle.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/09/15/rochester-man-dies-after-struggling-with-marshals/8330285002/
https://www.wxxinews.org/crime/2021-09-15/man-dies-after-officers-struggle-during-arrest-attempt-in-rochester
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/rochester-man-dies-during-arrest-attempt-by-us-marshals/3254686/
https://www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2021-09-15/federal-officials-say-man-dies-after-his-gun-went-off-during-a-struggle-in-rochester
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-generals-office-special-investigation-opens-investigation-civilian-0
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-office-special-investigation-releases-report-death-dedrick
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/public-safety/2021/09/15/suspect-shot-with-own-gun-during-struggle-with-police-in-rochester
https://monroecountysheriff-ny.gov/news/news/2021/usms-mcso-joint-release-murder-arrests