The Sailboat Stolen From Jersey City: Newport Police Release Body-Camera Footage of the Deadly Shootout Aboard the Pathfinder
The custom 1968 Hinckley Bermuda 40 was taken from Liberty Harbor Marina on August 23 and found nearly 200 miles away in Newport Harbor. The newly released footage shows the August 26 confrontation in which Brendan Norris, 27, was killed and an officer was injured — a shooting that remains under investigation.
Newly released police body-camera footage shows the deadly shootout aboard a rare luxury sailboat stolen from Liberty Harbor Marina in Jersey City and later found nearly 200 miles away in Newport, Rhode Island, NorthJersey.com reports. Newport police released a narrated presentation on Friday containing the footage from the August 26 shooting. The case began on August 23, when the Pathfinder — a custom-built 1968 Hinckley Bermuda 40, a particularly distinctive vessel, its owner told NBC New York — was stolen from the Jersey City marina. Days later, police encountered the suspected thief, Brendan Norris, 27, of Newport, aboard the vessel in Newport Harbor.
The footage, as reported, shows Newport officers pulling alongside the Pathfinder and ordering Norris to stay on deck. Instead, police said, Norris went below deck and opened fire as officers boarded the boat. Police Chief Ryan Duffy said Norris fired from inside the cabin before officers returned fire. Officers returned fire, killing Norris; an officer was injured in the exchange. Police later found Norris unresponsive inside the cabin with a severe head injury and a firearm nearby, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The reporting carries a viewer-discretion warning for the footage, which includes the sound of gunfire.
What the release does not answer is the Jersey City end of the case. Norris, who had boating experience and an online crewing profile indicating he had been seeking work in the yachting industry, reportedly spent about 90 minutes around Liberty Harbor Marina before the theft — but authorities have not publicly explained why he was in New Jersey, whether he had any connection to Jersey City, why he targeted the Pathfinder, or why he sailed the boat toward Rhode Island. The August 26 shooting remains under investigation by Newport police and Rhode Island State Police, and police said the newly released video is not a final determination of the officers' actions. For Jersey City, the file therefore stays open at both ends: a distinctive boat taken from a Hudson River marina in August, and an official video release in November that documents the confrontation without yet explaining how it began.
