Vigil held for Andrew Jerome Washington, man fatally shot by Jersey City Police
JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- A vigil was held Tuesday for the Jersey City man shot dead by police Sunday.
Family of 52-year-old Andrew Jerome Washington told CBS New York's Ali Bauman that they were trying to get him help, and instead, the city failed him.
They linked arms and lit candles Tuesday outside Washington's Jersey City home. It's where, two days prior, he was shot and killed by police.
"He was the light of the family, honestly," said Washington's cousin Wesley Hall.
Washington's family tells us he had struggled with bipolar disorder for years. He was having an episode Sunday afternoon when his aunt called the Jersey City medical crisis center.
"They said, 'We don't have a person available right now," said Washington's aunt Doris Ervin.
Instead, she says they sent EMS and police.
"He didn't have any weapons, nothing. He just told them, 'Get away from my door and leave me alone,'" Ervin said.
Police claim officers spent hours trying to talk him down. Then, the family says, SWAT teams arrived.
"The rifle hanging down, and he's running past me," Ervin said. "Me and my sister kept screaming, no, use a pellet gun, use a stun gun, we don't need guns. He's not a criminal. He didn't hurt anybody. Nobody's in the house. But they came in."
City officials claim Washington charged at police with a knife and an officer fired his gun.
The mayor said Monday the shooting was justified.
"You failed my nephew. You failed him," Ervin said.
Family and friends are demanding accountability and change.
"This is an issue of underrepresented individuals in Jersey City not being heard," one person said.
"I think what real justice for Drew also looks like is implementing mental health intervention, a team of trained professionals in Jersey City to be deployed when something like this happens. That looks like a lot of justice for a lot of other people, too," said Pamela Johnson, with the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County.
"Jersey City billed itself as a type of place where that would be a success story, and I think it's really disappointing that it isn't," Hall said.
The Jersey City Medical Center sent CBS New York the following statement: "Jersey City Medical Center expresses its heartfelt condolences to the family. As this is an open police investigation, we are unable to provide comment."
The state attorney general is now investigating, as per protocol. Both the mayor and Washington's family are urging their office to expedite the release of body camera footage.
A spokesman for the AG told us there's no timeline for when that will happen.
