Bodycam footage shows Bronx man shouted ‘If you don’t shoot me, she’s dead’ before police shooting

“If you don’t shoot me, she’s dead,” a Bronx man holding his mother at knifepoint repeatedly shouted at officers before they critically wounded him on May 1, according to recently released NYPD body camera footage.

The NYPD uploaded a video Friday of the events leading up to the police shooting of 34-year-old Daniel Ribustello inside his Pelham Bay apartment building.

The incident remains under investigation by the NYPD’s Force Investigation Division to determine whether officers acted within appropriate circumstances to use reasonable force.

At approximately 11:28 p.m. on May 1, Officer Carlos Pacheco and Sgt. Steven Grice responded to a 911 call about a man armed with a knife and attempting to harm himself inside an apartment at Hazel Towers, near Mulford Avenue and Libby Place.

The body camera footage begins as officers knock on the apartment door and are granted entry by an occupant. Once inside, they find Ribustello in the living room, holding his mother at knifepoint.

During the interaction, which lasts just under three minutes, Pacheco and Grice repeatedly order Ribustello to drop the knife. He refuses and threatens to kill his mother, who appears distressed throughout the incident.

“Please don’t kill me,” the woman is heard pleading on the video. Ribustello tells her to “shut up” and repeatedly orders the officers to shoot him or else he will kill her.

As Ribustello moves toward the officers, Pacheco fires one shot, disarming him and freeing his mother, who was uninjured.

Ribustello was treated for his injuries at Jacobi Medical Center. He was later arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, unlawful imprisonment and menacing.

The NYPD said the Force Investigation Division is continuing its review “as more interviews are conducted and forensic tests are completed.”

The First Deputy Commissioner’s Use of Force Review Board will ultimately determine whether Pacheco’s use of force was justified.