No criminal charges for Jersey City cop who killed man in mental crisis

A state grand jury has decided not to indict the Jersey City police officer who shot and killed a man in psychiatric crisis in 2023, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday.

Andrew Washington, 52, died on Aug. 27, 2023, after authorities sent police to his home in riot gear who pounded on his door, broke it down after a brief standoff, and then shot him with a gun and Taser when he rushed out the door armed with a knife. Washington’s family had called a mental-health hotline for help.

The police’s response flouted departmental de-escalation protocols and violated Washington’s civil rights, his family said in a wrongful death lawsuit they filed last year.

Grand jurors voted Monday not to criminally charge Officer Stephen Gigante, the “trained negotiator” who fired the fatal shots, after reviewing a 911 call, body-worn camera footage, witness interviews, photographs, ballistics reports, and autopsy results, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Washington had several mental health disabilities, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and bouts of psychosis that involved auditory hallucinations, his family said in their lawsuit, which remains ongoing. They called a mental health hotline because they wanted him to go to the hospital, they said.

Responding officers reported that Washington, communicating through his closed door, referred to a “suicide mission” and seeing ghosts, refused to talk with EMTs, and then went silent altogether, spurring supervisors’ decision to breach the door, according to the Attorney General’s Office. When the officers did, Washington ran at them with a 13-inch knife, the office said.

Attorney Amelia Green, who represents Washington’s family, said they were disappointed by the grand jury’s decision. But the decision does not exonerate the officers, Green added.

“We will prove these officers violated Drew’s constitutional rights in multiple ways when they shot and killed him when he was in the midst of a mental health episode,” Green said in a statement. “Drew’s death is the result of ongoing systemic failures by the Jersey City Police Department in its interactions with those with mental health disabilities. The grand jury’s decision only makes the family’s civil rights lawsuit all the more important in holding the Jersey City Police Department accountable for Drew’s death.”

Washington’s slaying came just five months after Paterson police gunned down community activist Najee Seabrooks after a similar standoff in March 2023. That incident drove the state to take over the Paterson police force. A grand jury decided in March not to indict two officers for Seabrooks’ death.

Both deaths and resulting community protests prompted state Attorney General Matt Platkin to amend the statewide use-of-force policy in encounters involving people in mental crisis and expand a statewide program that pairs police with trained mental health professionals to handle such calls.