Man shot dead by Buffalo police is brother of slain boy, 12

Roberts, 25, and Griffin had the same mother, Joann Ponzo, said Kareema Morris, a friend of Ponzo and founder of Bury the Violence, an organization that works with families with missing children.

A second family friend and a law enforcement source who asked not to be named also confirmed the name of the victim.

Buffalo police have not released the name of the man who was killed.

Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said at a 3:30 p.m. news conference that there was a 6-year-old in the front seat of the car driven by the man who was shot. The child was too small and young to be in the front seat. He was not wearing a seat belt, Gramaglia said.

When police stopped the vehicle because it was speeding and had tinted windows, the driver could not produce a valid driver’s license, Gramaglia said. Officers asked the driver to step out of the vehicle, and it appeared the motorist was going to comply.

“At this point, without any provocation, without any warning, the driver of the vehicle quickly put the car in drive and accelerated at a very high rate of speed,” Gramaglia said.

The driver dragged the officer, who was hanging onto the top of the door frame, at speeds in excess of 60 mph, Gramaglia said.

“The officer said, ‘You’re going to kill me, you’re going to kill me.’ He was pleading with him to stop,” Gramaglia said.

He said the motorist appeared to try to kick the officer and the officer then shot the motorist. The officer fired five shots, all of which hit the motorist, he added.

The officer was then able to slow the vehicle and he and the motorist fell off and out of the car at the same time at a much slower speed, the commissioner said. The officer ran after the car as it came to a stop near Kensington and Wyoming avenues. The child was unharmed in the front seat.

The motorist was severely wounded but showed signs of life, Gramaglia said. Other officers used a tourniquet in an attempt to save his life as they waited for an ambulance.

The wounded man was transported to Erie County Medical Center by AMR and pronounced dead there. The officer was treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

Police found a loaded handgun in the car after obtaining a search warrant, Gramaglia said.

“That gun was loaded with seven rounds, one in the chamber and six in the magazine,” he said.

The shooting happened shortly after midnight near Kensington and Poultney avenues, several blocks west of Bailey Avenue, the police department said in a news release.

Police department spokesman Michael DeGeorge said police body camera footage of the incident will not be publicly released until after relatives of the killed motorist have a chance to view it.

Buffalo homicide detectives and the department’s Internal Affairs Division are conducting separate investigations, the spokesman said.

The department also notified the State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations.

An officer reported “shots fired” at 12:13 am, according to archived department radio transmissions on broadcastify.com.

About 20 seconds before that, an officer reported a vehicle “took off on us” heading westbound on Kensington, according to the audio recording.

Dispatch was also informed that “child’s OK.”

About a minute after reporting shots fired, an officer asked dispatch to send an ambulance.

“One suspect shot,” the officer said about 15 seconds later.

Roberts’ half-brother, Jaylen Griffin, was last seen Aug. 4, 2020, leaving his home on Warren Avenue in the Broadway-Fillmore district, near the Central Terminal.

His body was found April 12 in a home on Sheffield Avenue in South Buffalo and his death was ruled a homicide.

Roberts was charged in a shooting in which no one was injured that happened April 22 during a memorial for his half-brother in the vicinity of Memorial Drive and Sweet Avenue.

Roberts was arraigned June 4 on an indictment charging him with attempted assault and weapons possession, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. He had a court date scheduled in the case for July 23, according to court records.

The brothers’ mother, Ponzo, died Sept. 18, 2023, at 48.

Jaylen’s older brother, Jawaan Griffin, was killed in a shooting on Memorial Drive in November 2020. He was 18.

The most recent shooting by a Buffalo officer happened in Feb. 24 on Reed Street, where police encountered a man standing in the middle of the road wearing camouflage and holding a shotgun.

That shooting was described by department brass as “suicide by cop,” or an incident in which a person takes actions in order to be killed by police.

The department released body-worn camera footage in the days after the shooting.

News staff reporter Dan Herbeck contributed to this story.