Jamesville, NY — The four police officers involved in the shooting death of a Jamesville teen a week ago were not wearing body cameras.
Body camera footage is key evidence in police shootings: it can show exactly what’s going on the second that an officer opens fire. That’s crucial information as the state Attorney General’s Office probes the police fatal shooting of 17-year-old Judson Albahm.
But none of the officers who fired -- from DeWitt, state police and the sheriff’s office -- were equipped with body-worn cameras during the March 4 incident, Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard found.
RELATED: 4 officers from 3 agencies fired guns during fatal shooting of Jamesville teen
In fact, only one of the three police agencies involved uses body cameras at all.
The agency with body cameras is the DeWitt Police Department. But the department’s 16 cameras are deployed to patrol officers, not criminal investigators, spokesman Lt. Jerry Pace said.
Two DeWitt investigators, Lucas Byron, an 11-year veteran, and Matthew Menard, a 5-year veteran, shot Judson after the teen pointed a replica handgun at them, authorities have said.
Pace declined to comment specifically on the Jamesville incident, citing the ongoing investigation.
State police and the sheriff’s office do not equip officers with body cameras, according to public information.
Trooper Corey Fike, a 7-year veteran, and sheriff’s Sgt. Amy Bollinger, a 20-year veteran, also opened fire during the March 4 shooting off Apulia Road.
Authorities have released little information about the police response to Judson’s mental health call that turned deadly. Still unknown is how many officers from each agency responded, how many shots were fired, where the shooting happened or what happened in the hour leading up to the shooting.
The state police are required to begin using body cameras beginning April 1, but only for patrol officers, according to a law passed last year. It’s unclear if Fike, after April 1, would have been equipped with one under the new law.
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office does not use body cameras, and has no timetable for using them in the future, spokesman Sgt. Jon Seeber said.
What’s less clear is whether there’s any body camera footage from any officer at the scene. There was a large police response and many officers involved. If there is video, it would have had to come from other responding DeWitt Police officers.
Even if other DeWitt officers responded, it’s unclear if any of them would have been close enough to capture the shooting itself with their body-worn cameras.
DeWitt just started outfitting officers with body-worn cameras last year, Pace said. The department has spent $35,000 to buy 16 body-worn cameras and necessary equipment. Those cameras went to offices in the uniformed patrol division. (Investigators are plainclothes officers.)
The department is planning to buy eight more body-worn cameras this year, allowing all officers of every rank -- from patrol to investigators to command -- to wear when on the job, Pace said. However, that hadn’t yet happened at the time of the Jamesville shooting.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick declined to comment on whether there’s any body camera footage from the scene, citing the ongoing AG’s investigation. However, he did confirm Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard’s analysis regarding each department’s use (or non-use) of body cameras.
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Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.