NEWPORT, RI — Newly released body camera footage shows the moment Rhode Island police officers confronted a man suspected of stealing a 40-foot sailboat from a Jersey City marina, setting off a gunfight that left the man dead and one officer wounded.
The Newport Police Department released video showing officers approaching the vessel and ordering the man aboard to show his hands. Instead, police said, he ran into the cabin. A gunshot then rang out as officers moved onto the boat, and the confrontation escalated into an exchange of gunfire.
Police later identified the man as 27-year-old Brendan Norris. Authorities said he died from his injuries after the encounter.
Jersey City marina theft led police to Newport days later
Authorities said the sailboat was reported stolen from Liberty Harbor Marina on Aug. 22. The vessel was described as a 40-foot sailboat, and days later investigators believed they had found it in Newport, Rhode Island.
That connection is what brought Newport officers to the boat shown in the footage. The case links a theft from the New Jersey waterfront with a deadly confrontation several states away, after police tracked the reported stolen vessel north.
News footage tied to the investigation also showed surveillance images released after the marina theft, underscoring how the case unfolded from the original report in Jersey City to the police encounter in Rhode Island.
Officers ordered the man to show his hands before shots were fired
In the body camera video, officers can be heard repeatedly telling the man to show his hands as they approached the sailboat. Police said the person on board instead disappeared into the cabin.
Once officers began boarding the vessel, a shot was heard. The video then captured officers saying that shots had been fired as the exchange continued.
The footage released by the department does not show a lengthy standoff. Instead, it shows a fast-moving confrontation on the boat, with officers reacting after the first gunfire as they pressed further into the cabin area.
One officer was shot in the leg during the exchange
During the gunfight, police said one officer was struck by gunfire. Authorities later said that officer suffered a wound to the leg and was treated for the injury.
The body camera footage also captures the urgency of the scene as officers announce that shots had been fired while the confrontation was still unfolding. The department has not said in the footage release how many officers were on board at the time or whether any additional injuries were reported.
Police did say the officer survived the shooting and received medical care after the encounter. The incident added another layer of seriousness to a case that had started as a reported boat theft in New Jersey.
Police found Norris inside the cabin with a gun and head injury
After moving into the cabin, officers said they found a man holding a gun and suffering from a significant head injury. Police identified him as Brendan Norris, 27, and said he was the person suspected in the sailboat theft.
Authorities said Norris died from that injury. The Newport Police Department’s release did not describe in detail how the head wound occurred, beyond the sequence of gunfire and the discovery inside the cabin.
What is clear from the footage is that the encounter ended inside the boat after officers entered the cabin area. Police said the suspect was located there after the exchange of shots.
The case connects a New Jersey marina theft with a fatal Rhode Island encounter
The investigation has drawn attention because it began with a reported theft on the Jersey City waterfront and ended with a deadly police shooting in another state. The sailboat was taken from Liberty Harbor Marina, then later traced to Newport, where the confrontation occurred.
For New Jersey residents, the case highlights how quickly an ordinary theft report can turn into a multistate police operation. For Rhode Island authorities, it became a fatal armed encounter aboard a suspected stolen vessel.
Police have released the footage as part of the public record of the case, and the video provides the clearest view yet of how officers encountered Norris on the sailboat and how the gunfire unfolded.
