Officers who fatally shot homicide suspect in Flatbush will not face prosecution
Investigators say members of NYPD’s Brooklyn North Warrant Squad responded to 38-year-old Vilmond Jean-Baptiste's apartment on Sept. 13, 2024. to serve him a warrant.
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The officers who fatally shot a homicide suspect in Flatbush will not face prosecution, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation.
Investigators say members of NYPD’s Brooklyn North Warrant Squad responded to 38-year-old Vilmond Jean-Baptiste's apartment on Sept. 13, 2024. to serve him a warrant. The encounter quickly took a violent turn, which was captured on body-cam video.
Officers found Jean-Baptiste in a shower, wielding a knife. He refused repeated orders from officers to drop the weapon.
Prosecutors say one officer yelled, "you will get tased or shot!” In response, Baptiste threw a bottle from the shower at the officers and continued to clutch the knife. Investigators say a sergeant then unsuccessfully deployed a taser.
Jean-Baptiste emerged from the shower and advanced toward the officers with the knife. Three officers fired their weapons, striking Jean-Baptiste. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.
On the day of the incident, police told News 12 that Jean-Baptiste was arrested in 2015 for reckless endangerment and was a person of interest in two separate homicides, involving three people.
The AG's OSI release about the investigations findings stated, in part, "...given the law and the evidence, a prosecutor would not be able to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the officers’ use of deadly physical force against Mr. Jean-Baptiste was justified, and therefore OSI determined that criminal charges would not be pursued in this matter."
