At a news conference, Dyer said he made a decision to release the graphic videos of officers firing four gunshots into Dylan Noble, a white man, because of the intense public interest in the shooting.
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The 19-year-old was unarmed, but Chief Jerry Dyer said he was reaching toward his waistband repeatedly. “However, I believe this video is also going to raise questions in the minds of people, just as those questions exist in my mind as well”.
Darren Noble filed a claim Thursday saying a culture of lax discipline in the Fresno police department led officers to needlessly kill his son. Then he started to get out of the vehicle; officers yelled at him to get back inside.
An officer then twice shot Noble, who fell 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”. Chief Dyer said the officers believed at the time that Noble may have held a weapon.
Noble’s killing on June 25 came more than a week before widely publicized fatal police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota.
While he is laying on the ground, the same officer fires a third shot.
“They just wanted to shoot him”.
One of the officers told investigators that “he thought Noble was either taunting him or was practicing pulling out a gun”, said Dyer, Reuters reports.
Undoubtedly latching on to Noble’s last words, another opined that it was a case of suicide by cop.
The family has now launched legal action against the city, arguing the shooting was “an inexcusable use of excessive force”. He turns around and walks toward officers, raising his left hand but putting his right hand behind his back.
In releasing the video Wednesday evening, Dyer called the footage “extremely disturbing” to watch, but said he hoped it would help clarify the circumstances at the time of the incident and why police opened fire.
When he falls to the ground, it appears both of his hands are empty and contain no weapons; however, Noble continued to move around. The object Noble had in his had was apparently a clear piece of plastic, 4-inch-by-4-inch with a gray clay inside.
The incident is being investigated internally as well as by the local district attorney, and federal authorities have also agreed to investigate, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Protests erupted around the country over those videos with hundreds of arrests.
“I, too, have questions about the last two rounds fired”, Dyer said, and whether they were “absolutely necessary or were there other options”.
The footage has sparked outrage among viewers, with Dylan’s own father claiming officers were “trigger-happy”. Noble continues to reach toward his waist before he is shot two more times.
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His death did attract the notice of one Black Lives Matter supporter, however – but she was shot down because Noble was the wrong color. “We are pleased to discover from the media that Chief Dyer is belatedly providing the body camera footage to the general public”, Chandler said.
