Share

Dylan Noble shooting: Police release graphic body-cam footage

Not only did they shoot him twice, they shot him twice down on the ground when he was bleeding.

Advertisement

Although Dyer said both officers believed Noble was ready to shoot them, it was later shown that he was unarmed.

Blurry video from a witness that emerged last week captured the final bullets that killed Noble, but the body-camera footage provides a much fuller picture of the shooting.

New York Daily News reports that Noble was shot to death on June 25, after reportedly reaching into his waistband two times while police yelled at him to keep his hands up.

Noble gets out of the truck and walks away from officers, at first putting both hands in the air. He then briefly walked toward the police. Later, an officer screams: “Let me see both your hands”.

Dyer said one of the officers told investigators he thought Noble was either taunting him or was practicing pulling out a gun, although it later emerged Noble wasn’t armed.

Dyer said the officer who fired the first two shots then fired a third shot. After Noble falls to the ground, he’s shot again as he moves his arms. Within 15 seconds, another officer dealt a fatal shot to Noble.

Fresno chief of police Jerry Dyer told the TV station the teenager had one hand behind his back at the time of the shooting and police were concerned he could be concealing a weapon.

Officers at the scene had warned Noble not to reach into his waistband, believing he may have a gun, but Noble twice reached under his shirt for his waistband, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said.

Questions over Noble’s death come at a time when communities across the country are grappling with anxieties about police brutality following multiple high-profile deaths by officers.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police tackled and fatally shot Alton Sterling last week outside of a convenience store while he was selling CDs. Each officer then fires an additional shot.

But, he added, it shows that departments keen on shielding the public from body-camera footage “can do better”.

One Black Lives Matter supporter tweeted Friday that the movement “stands with Dylan Noble”, but her comment drew a mixed reaction, with some surmising that his death was so-called suicide by cop, the Post reports. He did reveal that one of the officers had 20 years’ experience at the department, and one had 17 years as an officer, 10 of which were in Fresno. Dyer stressed during the news conference that officers are trained to assess the situation after every shot, and that the officers involved would be asked about the threat that they perceived before each of the shots. “I don’t want anything to happen in our city like it happened in Dallas”.

The object turns out to be a small plastic box. Noble’s mother Veronica Nelson has filed suit against the city.

The department has also failed to remedy “systemic violations” and “civil rights abuses” within the police agency, the claim continues, and has shown “deliberate indifference to the use of excessive and often deadly force in encounters with civilians when it is a grossly disproportionate response”.

Advertisement

Dyer said the decision to release them was based on public concern over how police handled the incident, which has sparked protests.

Police in Fresno California have released bodycam footage which shows the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Dylan Noble at a gas station last month