by David Escobar (Report For America corps reporter)
The morning of June 29, 2022, two Saranac Lake police officers pulled their vehicle into a Stewart’s Shops parking lot. The call turned out to be fatal.
The suspect, 33-year-old Saranac Lake resident Joshua De’Miguel Kavota, had reportedly stabbed a man on Bloomingdale Avenue before fleeing to a nearby Stewart’s gas station.
When approached by police, Kavota, who was wielding a knife, lunged at one of the officers before he was shot by her partner. Kavota later died from the gunshot wounds.
The incident drew regional attention and was later investigated by the state Attorney General’s office.
In Saranac Lake, the shooting sparked a painful conversation. Kavota, who was Black, had been killed by a white police officer, leading some community members to question whether the shooting was racially motivated.
Bodycam footage of the shooting showed officers attempting to de-escalate Kavota, and investigators ultimately ruled that the use of lethal force was justified. The Adirondack Diversity Initiative (ADI) concurred with the finding, but its director, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, said some community members called on her organization with a list of requests for local policing.
“We need training, we need help, we need cultural competency, understanding and training, and we need someone to fill this kind of gap,” said Rea-Fisher.
At the time, ADI was developing a community policing initiative to enhance relationships between law enforcement agencies and the Adirondack communities they serve. The program was launched in July 2021, in part to supply training resources for Adirondack police agencies to comply with state Executive Order 203. The mandate, issued weeks after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, requires local governments to adopt policing reform plans to address racial bias and disproportionate policing of communities of color.
To date, over 160 officers and DEC rangers have participated in the training program, which is now in its fourth year.
Rea-Fisher talked with NCPR’s David Escobar about the police training program and the findings of a recent evaluation.
Listen to the interview on North Country Public Radio.