Dramatic body-camera video shows the moment Rhode Island police exchanged gunfire with a suspected boat thief aboard a luxury sailboat stolen from a New Jersey marina.
Four Newport police officers rushed toward the missing Pathfinder, a 1968 Hinckley Bermuda 40, after spotting Brendan Norris aboard the vessel at Newport Marina on Aug. 26.
Norris, 27, was on deck raising the anchor with the engines running when he suddenly fled below deck, according to footage released by Newport Police Chief Ryan Duffy.
“Sir, stay on the deck,” one officer shouted while aiming his weapon at the sailboat.
As two officers boarded the vessel, Norris fired at least one round, hitting one of them in the leg.
Officers responded with a 19-second volley of gunfire directed toward Norris.
Amid the barrage, two officers leaped from the stolen sailboat onto a nearby harbormaster’s vessel to get out of the line of fire.
“Shots fired, shots fired. One hit,” an officer reported over the radio.
Duffy said the officer suffered shrapnel wounds to the face as well as a gunshot wound to the leg.
The injured officer moved toward the cabin entrance, where he found Norris suffering from fatal injuries.
“I’ve got a suspect down. I have my eyes on him,” the officer said over the radio.
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Another officer repeatedly asked, “Who’s been hit?”
“I’ve been hit in the leg, relax,” the officer answered while climbing into the cabin. “Everybody chill.”
Norris was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering a severe gunshot wound to the head.
The wounded officer was taken to a hospital in stable condition and has since returned to duty, Duffy said.
The alleged theft began with a late-night break-in at Liberty Harbor Marina in Jersey City, across the river from Manhattan, on Aug. 22.
Security footage showed Norris spending about 90 minutes around the New Jersey marina before allegedly taking control of the docked Pathfinder.
He sailed the vessel through the Upper Bay and beneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before allegedly shutting off its transponder, the system used to track the boat.
The boat’s owner, Jim Bonomo, reported it missing after arriving at the marina with his wife on Aug. 23 and discovering that the vessel he had owned for 10 years was gone.
Bonomo subsequently warned marinas along the East Coast to watch for the Pathfinder.
The harbormaster in Newport noticed the vessel matching the description of the missing Pathfinder but its name had been scraped off the stern.
The harbormaster called police about Norris, leading to the confrontation in the harbor just after 9 a.m.