ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Chief David Smith of the Rochester Police Department answered questions at a city council meeting about bodycam footage of the fatal shooting of Todd Novick.
On Christmas Eve, 46-year-old Novick was shot and killed by a Rochester police officer on Murray Street after receiving reports of a man with a gun. RPD said Novick ran away and had something in his hand before he was shot five times by an officer, which was revealed to be a replica gun. Novick died after he was taken to a hospital.
The Attorney General’s Office released video of the incident , which had an additional 20 seconds of video showing Novick apologizing and explaining that he was trying to drop the replica gun. RPD cut those last 20 seconds out of the footage.
Chief Smith clarified that Rochester City Council and Mayor Malik Evans saw the full footage and explained the decision to leave that part out of the video.
“The raw bodycam footage was made available for city councilmembers to come and view. The mayor himself came to the sixth floor, viewed the raw body cam footage,” said Chief Smith. “Our video ends where it does based on my decision, because I watched that, because quite honestly, I could not bring myself to put that last 20 seconds of that man’s life up for public view on the internet and YouTube out of respect for that man’s family.”