Warning: This video contains graphic and disturbing imagery.
On Tuesday evening, a judge ordered police in Gardena, Calif. to release dramatic video footage taken from an officer dashcam. The clip shows three officers pointing guns at three unarmed men. After a few moments, one officer fatally shoots one of the men. Until now, the city successfully suppressed this 2013 clip, which was taken outside a CVS Pharmacy after police radio erroneously reported a robbery.
In the video, an officer shouts, “Put your hands up!” at the men. Two of the men immediately comply and do not waver. The third man does something different, and here’s the district attorney’s take from the L.A. Times:
The patrol car video showed Diaz Zeferino dropping his hands and reaching to his right waistband or rear right pocket and making a tossing motion, dropping an object on the ground, the district attorney’s memo said. He raised his hands, then repeated the move and removed something from his left rear pocket, the memo said.
“You do it again, you’re going to get shot,” yelled an officer on the video, according to the memo.
Diaz Zeferino removed his baseball hat and lowered his hands. As he began to raise his hands again, three of the officers opened fire, the district attorney’s memo said.
Zeferino died instantly. One of the other men “was inadvertently struck with a bullet.” The city has since paid a settlement of $4.7 million on this case, but the District Attorney declined to file charges in this incident. The video has reawakened debate on police brutality and use of force.
(Via L.A. Times)