Police Officer Clinging to Speeding Car Shoots Fleeing Suspect Dead; Terrified Child in Passenger Seat
A police officer clings to a speeding car and shoots a suspect who is trying to get away while a scared child screams in the passenger seat. This shocking bodycam video has been made public.
Officer Ronald Ammerman pulled over 25-year-old Dae’von Roberts for speeding just after midnight on Wednesday on Kingston Avenue. The shocking video, which was released by the Buffalo Police Department in New York on Thursday, shows Roberts frantically trying to get away from the police.
A 6-year-old boy can be heard screaming in fear as Ammerman clings to the car for dear life and begs Roberts to stop, saying, “You’re gonna kill me, bro.”
For about 20 seconds, the car speeds away, and Ammerman fires several shots as they both fall to the ground.
“Fireworks!” There is still a child in the car. The police officer yells into his radio, “He tried to kill me!”
In a hurry, Ammerman goes over to check on the child, who is fine, and grabs him until help comes.
At a nearby hospital, Roberts was pronounced dead. Police later said they found a gun inside the car.
Chief of Police in Buffalo, Joseph Gramaglia, said he agreed with Ammerman’s decision to protect himself from immediate danger.
On the spot, Gramaglia told the press, “I believe that was a justified use of force that happened the other night.” “When you take into account the fact that the officer found himself in a grave risk of serious physical injury or death, the use of that level of force is justified by law and I do believe that that is a justified use of force in this case.”
“These situations, they don’t evolve in a classroom, they don’t evolve in a training facility.” What Gramaglia said. Because this is real life, I can’t really change how some of these things turn out. Even though we can train for different events, they always go differently in real life than they do in a training facility.
Gramaglia said that Ammerman and another cop had been friendly and professional during the nine-minute stop before Roberts tried to get away.
At the start of the video, Ammerman walks up to the driver’s side of the car and tells Roberts that he is being pulled over for going too fast and having covered windows.
There is a child’s car seat and a 6-year-old boy in the front passenger seat without a seat belt on. Roberts pulls down the tinted back window for Ammerman. Roberts says the kid is his “nephew” and “little cousin,” and he’s on his way to drop him off at home.
Then Ammerman asks Roberts to show ID, and Roberts agrees and pulls out a phone app with an ID from another state. Ammerman is told by Roberts that he is from Georgia and was driving his sister’s car.
However, when Ammerman checked the ID, it was not valid, and Roberts did not have a license in either state.
For the next seven and a half years, Ammerman has worked for the department. He told Roberts that police would look for his name differently before the officer came out of the car and opened the door.
Roberts then put his foot down and drove off quickly, leaving Ammerman holding to the door in fear.
Roberts was charged in April for allegedly firing shots at a memorial for his half-brother Jaylen Griffin. Griffin’s body was found at a home in South Buffalo in April after he went missing in August 2020, according to WIVB News 4.
The news source says Roberts was charged in June and was freed under supervision at that time.
At the same time, Gramaglia said that Ammerman and cop Jonathan Crawford, the other cop on the scene, have both been put on administrative leave in line with department policy.
Aglia said, “They’ll need time to think about this.” “You can’t just come back to work the day after being involved in a situation like that.”