About

Man In "Buffalo" Shirt Charging refers to a still image from a bodycam footage showing a Black man wearing an orange t-shirt with the word "Buffalo" on it screaming and charging at a police officer aiming a taser at him. The image depicts 30-year-old Deshawn Leeth, who was later fatally shot after driving away in the officer's cruiser. Posted in mid-April 2025, the image has been used as an exploitable, used in a similar way as Woman Charging With a Knife, another meme originating from police bodycam footage.

Origin

On April 15th, 2025, YouTube^[1] channel PoliceActivity uploaded bodycam and dashcam footage of a fatal police chase in Ohio that unfolded on April 4th after 30-year-old Deshawn Leeth attacked a police officer and stole his cruiser. The first few minutes of the footage show a police officer approaching Leeth, who earlier crashed his personal vehicle on the side of a turnpike. Leeth is seen grabbing his head and praying, pushing the trooper and arguing with him as he approaches before running away. Leeth then turns back and runs at the officer, who uses a taser on him. The taser fails to subdue Leeth, and he proceeds to attack the trooper. The two fight, with Leeth subduing the officer and proceeding to steal his cruiser. After a brief car chase, Leeth crashes the cruiser and is fatally shot by police officers as he resists arrest.^[2][3]

The YouTube upload (shown below) received over 375,000 views in one day.

Also on April 15th, @Police_Activity posted a link to the video on X,^[4] using an image of Leeth being tasered as a thumbnail. The image is a cropped and edited frame from the video: the trooper's equipment partly obscuring the left side of the frame is removed in the edit (original and edited versions shown below). The post received over 590,000 views, 260 reposts and 2,000 likes in one day.

Spread

Starting on April 15th, the video and the image saw viral spread on X / Twitter as users commented on its content and posted edits of the image. For example, on April 15th, 2025, X^[5] user @9mm_smg posted the image with the comment "Bodycam footage is amazing." The post (shown below) received over 740 reposts and 15,000 likes in one day.

The image has been compared to Woman Charging With a Knife, another bodycam footage meme showing a Black individual attacking a police officer while grimacing. For example, on April 15th, 2025, X^[6] user @steveislegend posted the two image side by side with the humorous caption "I'm putting together a team". The post (shown below) received over 150 reposts and 4,600 likes in one day.

Additionally, the image saw use as an exploitable and source material for photoshops and AI edits. For example, on April 16th, 2025, X^[7] user @mask_bastard posted a Studio Ghibli AI edit of the image that gained over 810 likes in one day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References