Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting that fatally wounded a Black man on Saturday in San Bernardino, California. They say the man was armed on the time.
The incident occurred in a car parking zone round 8 p.m., and was recorded by close by surveillance cameras. Disturbing silent footage, which exhibits uniformed authorities emerge from an unmarked automobile and shoot 23-year-old Robert Adams within the again, was shared to social media and has since sparked outrage on-line.
In the video, which lasts about two minutes, Adams is first seen standing on the rear of a parked automobile chatting with somebody he appears to know. He seems to face the unmarked police automobile and briefly step towards it, at which level two officers exit the driving force’s and passenger seat doorways with their weapons drawn. Adams turns to run in the other way and strikes only a few paces earlier than one officer discharges his weapon. The bullet strikes Adams within the again, and he falls to the bottom.
Adams was transported to a hospital the place he later died from his accidents. His mom, Tamika Deavila King, responded to the shooting and surveillance footage in feedback to CBS Los Angeles this week. Like many others on Twitter and Facebook, she questioned the officer’s determination to fireside his gun.
“I could understand if he was a threat to them,” mentioned King, referencing her son’s actions on the tape within the moments main as much as the shooting. “But he was not a threat to them. He was running for his life.”
Family members and buddies — together with one individual recognized as Adams’ “best friend,” who was seemingly in a position to present a firsthand recollection of the shooting whereas chatting with CBS LA — have mentioned that police didn’t verbally talk with Adams in any respect throughout the lethal interplay. However, the San Bernardino Police Department wrote that each officers “attempted to give Adams verbal commands” in a statement launched on Monday.
Both officers belonged to the division’s specialised investigative unit and have been deployed to the location of the shooting after reportedly receiving information that “a Black male armed with a gun was in the parking lot of an illegal online gambling business,” in line with San Bernardino PD. The assertion says Adams pulled a gun from his waistband as he walked towards the unmarked police automobile and was nonetheless carrying the gun whereas he tried to run away.
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Adams’ loss of life is underway. The police division urged that the surveillance clip “fails to provide any details or context as to what occurred during the incident” and requested group members to “please withhold their judgement on the situation until they have all the available facts and details.”
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