Vigil held on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, for Andrew “Drew” Jerome Washington who was fatally shot by Jersey City police at his home on Randolph Avenue on Aug. 27. (Reena Rose Sibayan / The Jersey Journal)
It’s been three years since Andrew Washington was fatally shot by Jersey City police officer Stephen Gigante, following a standoff that led public dissent on how the police conduct their affairs when addressing a mental health call.
Many in the community knew him as Drew.
On Saturday, Aug. 27, the community came together to amplify efforts of mental health awareness along with the dialogue of police brutality. Along Martin Luther King Drive, members who attended the inaugural event included the Drew Cubed Project—Washington’s relatives—, the Urban League of Hudson County, Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County and Build More Unity.
The youth in the neighborhood came outside, running around the streets of 409 Martin Luther King Drive. “Keep your head to the sky,” was a quote that hung on a banner, as attendees talked about the challenges they faced when addressing police brutality in their communities.
Looking back at Aug. 27, 2023, the scenario of the police turned to a full-fledged public outcry. Drew’s family members had called in JCPD officers in the hopes of responding to a mental health crisis, but instead he was met with brutal force. Now what continues to cascade is how officers face individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.
“This has been such a hard time,” said Toni Ervin, the aunt of Drew, who spoke to members. She said that accountability in government is a first step for reparations.
“Jersey City did not see things like that happening, but people came out in the hundreds to make our word known.”
JCPD officer Stephen Gigante, who fatally shot Drew, was off the hook when a grand jury decided to not have criminal charges pressed against him. This year, the Jersey City municipal council moved forward with providing legal defense for both officers, represented by two legal firms in the same case.
Slice of Culture reached out to Amelia Green, who is the family’s attorney and a partner at the Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffman & Freudenberger, LLP, on the status of the case but nothing has been provided at the time of this reporting.
This year, in honor of Drew, the city passed a resolution carving out Aug. 27 as the “Andrew Jerome Washington, III Mental Health Awareness Day,” echoing the need to factor in mental health when it comes to police responses to 911 calls.
The police encounter experienced by Drew, garnered national attention. Police video footage showed authorities standing in front of Drew’s apartment for nearly half an hour before forcibly opening the door. The 52-year old Jersey City resident was then both tased and shot.
“This is basically a struggle for our basic human rights.”
– Christian Durán, a member affiliated with Build More Unity, a Jersey City-based coalition that focuses on empowering community members to advocate for better living conditions.
He added that a symptom of Drew’s story is helmed by, “The vulnerability a lot of people have in the face of mistreatment by public officials.”
Back at MLK Drive, a line up of speakers emphasized the need to implement a mental health hotline for police officers to handle cases pertaining to a mental health crisis, rather than meshing in the situation as a typical 911 call.
Since then, Drew’s death stirred a movement of relatives, activists and residents to dissent the killing as standard protocol, and advocate for better responses when it comes to dealing with a mental health matter.
The city has expanded its ARRIVE Together program within the JCPD, which matches trained police officers with mental health screeners from Jersey City Medical Center to deescalate behavioral health crises.
“We have to make sure our residents are in a good state of mental health and I think it is a great way to honor his legacy,” said Council President Denise Ridley in an interview with Slice of Culture. “We are working with the city to expand mental health services, which was one of the most important parts of the budget.”
The city also passed a resolution last October 9-0 unanimously, approving the acceptance of a grant of $125,000 funneled to the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services (JCHHS) which would be used as a funding source for a Mental Health Training Grant Program.
But Drew wasn’t the only one.
A similar police incident took place with the life of Najee Brooks, a community activist and violence interventionist, who was killed by Paterson police officers at the wake of a mental health episode, as previously reported by Slice of Culture.
“Culture is a word that we use but it is something that we do, it is the group that tells our story,” said Pamela Johnson, the founder and executive director at the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County.
She mentioned that the coalition is still waiting on a state awarded $2 million grant, intended on paying operations and employment pay roll under the funding of the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH), which she told Slice of Culture, those funds have not been fully disbursed as of yet.
“I also need you to understand how we move over here,” she added.
Talking points that came up during the event centered on systemic inequities experienced in Jersey City and how that impacts the community directly, existing stigmas that exist with mental health attributed to African Americans and communities of color and the gap of being culturally tone deaf to issues encompassing mental health.
“That is definitely a barrier, not knowing where to get access to resources,” said Drew’s cousin who was one of the panelists who spoke. “This comes from years of division in our community and we know the situation of what happens often.”
State Sen. Angela McKnight also spoke on the available state resources that members can access in tackling the rise in healthcare costs in medical services: Alliance Community Healthcare in Hudson County and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), which help meet individuals who are uninsured.
“A lot of people that want care are simply afraid to go get it,” said Larry Hamm, a longtime civil rights activist and the founder of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), a Newark grassroots coalition, referring to healthcare benefits cuts from the federal powers of the Trump administration.
“There is no type of person for mental illness. There are people who look like they maybe need mental counseling that don’t need it, and there are people who look perfect, and they are really in need of mental health counseling.”
You can find New Jersey’s crisis hotline and other resources here: https://www.nj.gov/humanservices/dmhas/crisis/.
