|
Listen to this article here
|
Sign-Up for a free subscription to The Black Wall Street Times‘ daily newsletter, Black Editors’ Edition (BEE) – our curated news selections & opinions by us for you.
Washington D.C. – Bodycam footage released by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC) shows the moments leading up to and during the shooting that took the life of 27 year-old Antwan Gilmore the morning of August 25.
Wednesday morning, at approximately 2:45 am, officers were dispatched to the intersection of Florida Ave and New York Ave for the report of an unconscious person inside a vehicle occupying a traffic lane. Upon arrival, officers observed an adult male unresponsive with his foot on the brake pedal of his running vehicle, with a handgun visible in his waistband.
D.C. Police shoot man in car
Thursday morning Police Chief Robert Contee said the incident is under investigation and will be passed along to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine if any wrongdoing took place.
“I’d like to see us be transparent as a police department, as a government, about the facts of what happened, and I believe that that’s what we’re doing in this case,” Chief Contee said. “We’re giving the public the facts as we know them right now, allowing this case to go through it’s process so that we will see whatever outcome comes from this”.
Bodycam footage from the officer who fired his weapon shows him being one of the last engaging officers responding to the scene. He parks his vehicle away from the scene and has to run for almost 30 seconds carrying a ballistic shield. As he engages with the vehicle and other officers you can hear him out of breath.
Graphic Warning: This video shows a fatal shooting.
Officers surround vehicle as man wakes up
A nearby cell phone video shows that as many as eight officers surrounded the vehicle with guns drawn. The only officer to fire their weapon was the officer holding the ballistic shield. He fired his weapon 10 times into the moving vehicle.
“It’s very difficult to see through the lens of the officer, the one officer in this case that fired,” said Chief Contee. “It’s very difficult to see what that officer is seeing. What did he perceive to be the threat at that point?”
A separate video from WUSA9 shows three officer perspectives of the shooting where the officers attempt to engage with the driver.
Graphic Warning: This video shows a fatal shooting.
After a reporter asked about the department’s policy on firing into a moving vehicle, Chief Contee reiterated “firing at a moving vehicle is inconsistent with our policies”.
What led up to shooting?
Gilmore was asleep at the wheel with his foot on the brake pedal while the vehicle was running. After officers tapped on the window multiple times Gilmore began to wake up. It’s important to note that multiple law enforcement vehicles with their lights on were nearby, as well as officers surrounding the vehicle with guns pointed and flashlights shining into the vehicle.
As Gilmore woke up, his foot came off the brake pedal for a brief second causing his vehicle to lunge forward. No officers were in front of the vehicle, however the lunge did send officers into a panic with multiple officers yelling “don’t move”, “watch his hands”, “put it in park”, and other commands. The vehicle came to a brief stop, which is when the officer behind the ballistic shield began firing into the vehicle. Gilmore drove away as shots continued to enter into his vehicle, crashing into a tree nearby.
Gilmore was rushed to a hospital where he died later from gunshot wounds.
The shooting death comes days after a White man in a pickup truck threatened to have a bomb while parked near the U.S. Capitol. He eventually surrendered and was taken into custody peacefully by U.S. Capitol police.
This investigation is ongoing, and the story will be updated as new information becomes available.