After a month of demanding the body camera footage of the incident, the family of Jalen Randle were able to watch the moments before he was fatally shot by Houston police, per Yahoo! News. They recently ordered an independent autopsy which found Jalen was shot in the back of the neck.
The video was presented by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. April 27, Randle was stopped after a chase for three felony warrants, reports say. Police said Randle had a gun with him. Per the footage, Officer Shane Privette yells for Randle to put his hands in the air and before he can finish uttering the command, a shot fires.
More on the video from Yahoo! News:
As Privette continues to point his weapon, another officer handcuffs Randle as he lies face down on the ground. More footage from the scene posted to YouTube by the Houston Police Department shows officers performing first aid following the shooting.
Randle was shot in the back of the neck, attorneys for his family said, citing an independent autopsy. “The witnesses have said that he got out of the car and was running away. We believe the body cameras will all show it,” Crump said during a press conference earlier this month.
Crump added that it didn’t seem Randle was given enough time to react to the officer’s commands before he was shot. Also, the way the officers proceeded to handcuff and handle his dying body was particularly disturbing to watch.
Randle’s parents, Warren Randle and Tiffany Rachal, shared with ABC13 their reactions to the video. They agreed with Crump that Jalen was shot in a matter of seconds.
“He’ll never get to go to his daughter’s graduation. It’s tomorrow from Pre-K. He won’t be able to be there. It’s terrible,” said Warren Randle via ABC13.
Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officer’s Union, didn’t offer much comfort, saying the shooting was justified because Randle didn’t comply with the officer’s orders.
“He’s got multiple felonies for aggravated offenses and then on top of that, he’s got two objects, one in each hand that are both black and as he turns, the officers can’t wait to find out if that’s a gun or not,” said Griffith.