Police released the body cam footage of last month’s traffic stop of a California teen that resulted in the adolescent’s death at the hands of police, showing the officers firing into his body even as he lay on the ground, barely breathing.
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“I do not have the answer to that today”, he said.
“However, I also believe this video is going to raise questions just as those questions exist in my mind as well”. He also urged city leaders to ensure the police department no longer acts this aggressively and “to take full responsibility for Dylan Noble’s death”. Noble walked away from the officers momentarily, and then quickly turned around with his right hand concealed behind his back. He reached his right hand behind his back and appeared to carry an object in his right hand that officers believed could be a weapon, Dyer said.
As Noble advances, one police officer fires at him twice, dropping him to the ground. “The officers never, in those 30 commandments that Jerry Dyer indicated, did they ask him, ‘Do you have a gun?’ All they were doing was telling a young boy who may have been under the influence of some alcohol to do a bunch of commands for a routine traffic stop”. The entire time this is going on, officers are yelling at Noble to put his hands in the air.
This video’s release arrives after two high-profile shootings by police killed Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
Dyer said questions remain as to whether the last two shots that were fired by police when Noble was lying on the ground were necessary. His father tells The Guardian how “They just wanted to shoot him”.
Noble is heard saying that he hates his life.
In the video, officers can be seen pointing guns at Noble, who has pulled his truck over at a gas station. The footage shows Noble ignoring several police commands to stand still and keep his hands up.
Dyer said when he reaches for his waistband the officer fires again.
“Dyer says he’s mulling over whether the officers had to use deadly force based on a reasonable fear”. He said he hopes it would not spark further violence amid anti-police sentiment in Fresno and across the country. But like many agencies, the LAPD does not plan to routinely release those videos to the public.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the object in his hand was malleable clay. He admitted that the video was “extremely disturbing”.
“Dude, get your hands up”, the officer said.
The shooting prompted a protest in front of the Fresno County Jail on Wednesday by more than a hundred demonstrators, including Black Lives Matter, the activist group that has organized numerous protests in cities nationally in the wake of the police-involved killings of blacks. “Dude, if you reach one more time, you will get shot again”.
Dylan collapses onto the ground and rolls onto his back.
The footage has sparked outrage among viewers, with Dylan’s own father claiming officers were “trigger-happy”.
A criminal and an internal affairs investigation is underway while Mr Noble’s mother has filed a wrongful-death claim against the department.
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Peter Bibring, an attorney for the ACLU, applauded Dyer’s decision to show the public the video from the Fresno officers’ body cameras.
