Seconds after a Rochester police officer shot Todd Novick in the back on Christmas Eve, the mortally wounded civilian tried to explain why he had pulled a BB gun from his pocket as he fled.
“I was trying to put it down,” Novick said in a new fuller cut of the police footage, as he lay face down in gravel while two officers handcuffed him. “I was trying to put it down. I’m sorry.”
The New York Attorney General’s Office has released an extended version of the body-worn camera footage captured by the officer who shot Novick on Murray Street late last year. Novick died from his injuries, and the AG’s office is investigating his death.
Rochester police had previously released an edited compilation video of the shooting, which ended before Novick’s comments to police.
At a press conference in December, Rochester Police Chief David Smith said that the body-worn camera footage told a “very small part of the story” and said police had questions about why Novick drew the toy gun while he ran.
“It’s speculation,” Smith said at the time. “This is three seconds. It’s going to take months to unravel and put together the minutiae of this.”