Family of man shot by police expected to push for charges

ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — Relatives of a man fatally shot by police last month planned to hold a rally Wednesday where they were expected to press for criminal charges, a day after authorities released bodycam video of the shooting.

The video released by the state attorney general's office showed the moment when 39-year-old Hasani Best was shot last month in Asbury Park after he refused to relinquish a knife he was holding.

Best, who was known to officers from previous encounters, had barricaded himself in a room in his apartment after police responded to a 911 call about a domestic dispute. Several officers spent about 45 minutes trying to convince him to come out and drop the knife.

Finally, Best emerged partway and stood in the doorway, looked at one of the officers and said, “I’m going to stab him," though Best was standing still at the time. Police Sgt. Sean DeShader immediately fired from about 6 feet away, knocking Best back into the room. He died at a hospital about 20 minutes later.

DeShader currently is on administrative duty, a police department spokesman said in an email Wednesday. The department declined comment on the contents of the video.

The state attorney general’s office is investigating the shooting and will present the video and other evidence to a grand jury when the probe is concluded, though grand juries haven't been hearing cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a separate case in Asbury Park in 2019, police officers shot and killed a 27-year-old man who they said was acting erratically and was wielding a pair of scissors. That investigation also is ongoing.

Under guidelines issued by the attorney general's office, an officer is justified in using deadly force if he or she “reasonably believes such action is immediately necessary to protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm.”

Officers shouldn't use deadly force if they reasonably believe an alternative course of action will “avert or eliminate an imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm,” according to the guidelines.