The NYPD released body-cam footage of the fatal police shooting of a man who confronted officers with a pellet gun in the West Village.
Officers Geslline Gonzalez and Christopher Rodriguez opened fire on 37-year-old Dimitry Zass after he leveled an air-powered pistol at police on Bedford St. near Sixth Ave. around 10:50 p.m. on Jan. 8, cops said.
NYPD
Police released an image of what they described as an imitation gun they said a man used in a confrontation with police in Greenwich Village. The person was shot and killed by cops. (NYPD)
Zass was struck down as both officers fired a combined total of 26 rounds, said police.
Medics rushed Zass to Bellevue Hospital, where he died.
The video released Thursday begins with CCTV footage captured shortly before the shooting, which shows Zass cruising through the West Village in his white BMW when he backs his car into a van on Bedford St.
Both cars remain at the location, and the van’s driver can be seen emerging from his vehicle to flag down an NYPD patrol car arriving at the scene, the footage shows.
As Officers Gonzalez and Rodriguez approach the BMW, the CCTV footage switches to another angle that shows Zass emerging from his car with the weapon in his hand. He was shortly thereafter hit by police gunfire.
The footage recorded by the two cops’ body cams starts as they emerge from the passenger’s-side door of an NYPD squad car and approach Zass’s BMW.
“We shot some shots at him,” Gonzalez is heard speaking into the radio. “Unknown if he got hit. He’s on the floor. He still has the gun on him.”
“Drop the gun! Drop the f—ing gun!” Rodriguez shouts.
All police-involved fatal shootings are investigated by the state Attorney General.
Zass, who lived with his parents in Great Kills, Staten Island, had allegedly attacked his father earlier in the week, but had not been charged, police sources said.
During a panicked 911 call, his mother claimed Zass was attacking his dad and that he had a gun, according to the sources. His parents were in the process of getting an order of protection against him when he was killed about 15 miles from his home.
The deadly confrontation was the second police-involved shooting to erupt in the city that night, occurring less than five hours after police shot and killed a former cop and FDNY lieutenant armed with a jagged shard at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, cops said.
Police also unveiled body-cam footage from that shooting on Thursday.
Officer Gonzalez joined the force in Jan. 2024. Her record shows no history of disciplinary actions, according her online NYPD profile.
Rodriguez’s history with the department was not immediately available. Both officers are assigned to Manhattan’s 13th Precinct.
