Graphic Video Shows US Police Kill Unarmed Man
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Footage showing California police shoot and kill an unarmed man was released on Wednesday, two years after the incident.
The shooting dates to 2 June 2013, when police in Gardena, a suburban Los Angeles city, fatally shot Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino while investigating a bicycle theft.
The stolen bike belonged to Mr Diaz-Zeferino's brother and he was trying to find it, Sky News reported on Wednesday.
Mr Diaz-Zeferino, who was drunk at the time of the incident, did not obey police command to stand still with his hands up in the air and was subsequently shot, a police report said.
Witnesses said Diaz-Zeferino was trying to tell officers that they stopped the wrong men.
The dash-cam video was shot from three police cars.
Mr Diaz-Zeferino, wearing a black T-shirt and white cap, is first seen following police orders to raise his hands, then lowering them three times.
The final time, he removed his ball cap, lowered his arms and reached out with his palms up. That's when police opened fire.
The 35-year-old was shot eight times.
Officers said they feared Mr Diaz-Zeferino was reaching for a gun, but he was unarmed. Another man, Eutiquio Acevedo Mendez, was shot once and wounded.
Both men fell to the street. Nine minutes after the shooting, paramedics arrived. A post-mortem examination found methamphetamine in Mr Diaz-Zeferino's system.
Nobody has been charged in the case, but the city of Gardena settled a lawsuit with Mr Diaz-Zeferino's family and with Mr Acevedo Mendez for $4.7mln .
The release of the video is likely to fuel a debate over police shootings of unarmed men across America, which have sparked protests and in some cases riots.
Police are increasingly equipped with cameras to capture evidence that can be used against criminals or to hold officers accountable for their own behaviour.
The latest video was released on the order of a judge who deemed it of public interest, saying citizens should be able to see what led the city of Gardena to reach the settlement.
"The fact that they spent the city's money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public's interest in seeing the videos," Judge Stephen V Wilson wrote in his 13-page decision.
The order came in response to a request from The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and Bloomberg to unseal the video under a First Amendment right to access court documents.