Body camera footage has been released from when Colorado police shot and killed 19-year-old De’Von Bailey. The footage shows police shot the Black teen three times in the back as he ran away.
The shooting occurred on Aug. 3 when Colorado Springs Police Department Sgt. Alan Van’t Land and officer Blake Evenson responded to reports of an armed robbery. They stopped Bailey and the man he was with to question them, but when the police went to search Bailey, he fled. The police had previously claimed that they fired at Bailey because he was reaching for a gun, but Bailey’s family reportedly pushed for bodycam footage to be released publicly so people could judge the truth for themselves.
The footage from multiple officers bodycams shows Bailey running away from the officers when the shots are fired. The officers can be heard yelling “hands up” three times before firing at Bailey. Seconds later, Bailey is on the ground bleeding heavily as the officers handcuff and search him.
He was transported to a hospital where he died from the injuries, according to Insider. The autopsy report determined that he had been shot three times in the back and once in the elbow and that the gunshots, “collectively perforated the heart, left lung, diaphragm, and penetrated the spleen, resulting in massive blood loss and his subsequent death.”
The family’s lawyers argue that the video shows that the shooting was unjustified, characterizing it as an “execution.” According to Insider, this is the fifth time this year that a member of the Colorado Springs Police Department has fatally shot someone. In a statement on Facebook, District Attorney Dan May said they take investigations into officer-involved shootings “very seriously” and that they typically take, “approximately 90-120 days to complete, sometimes longer.”
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H/T Insider
