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Wal-Mart Surveillance Video of John Crawford III Shooting
Video footage has been released in the shooting death of John Crawford, the man who was gunned down in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmart by cops who apparently thought he was armed and dangerous. In reality, Crawford had picked up a pellet rifle from the hardware section of the store and was carrying it around while he talked on the phone.
The police maintained that Crawford had refused orders to drop the weapon; the video footage proves definitively that that was not the case—the cops shot the man almost immediately after encountering him. Claims in some media outlets that Crawford had been walking around the store and pointing the gun at people also seem false, unless those occurrences happened during the few seconds that Crawford was out of range of the surveillance camera.
Nevertheless, a grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved, according to The Huffington Post. The U.S. Department of Justice will look into the matter, however.
When this story first broke, many wondered whether mitigating factors would emerge to explain, if not justify, the reaction of law enforcement officers. To my eyes at least, the surveillance video confirms the worst case scenario: The cops killed this man for almost no reason whatsoever.
http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/25/video-proves-cops-shot-guy-in-walmart
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Comment by XLFD on December 17, 2014 at 9:20pm
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The US DOJ is still investigating the matter, though the logical federal civil lawsuit has been filed by Crawford's survivors. It alleges negligence on behalf of Wal-mart and the shooting officers, and other violations of Crawford's rights.
Also released is a videotape of an insensitive interrogation done on Crawford's grieving sister after the police knew of the general facts, apparently trying to intimidate her into making some sort of statement to the cops about the motives or intentions of her brother, even after they know the basic facts-- he was carrying a Wal-Mart BB-gun, threatened nobody, and was shot immediately by the two cops in the back without any warning or indication of anything unlawful being done.
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Comment by Willy on October 3, 2014 at 5:32pm
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Thanks for the info. X. It seems absurd to carry heavy weaponry around inside wal mart or any other store. A concealed hand gun would seem sufficient for protection in my opinion. Just because you have the right doesn't make it logical. This is another knee jerk reaction by the police which cost someone their lives. What if the guy was a 10 year old boy.
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Perhaps this video explains the problems a little better. The victim was a black male shot quickly by a white policeman, so there is an inherent racial element involved, which is enhanced because the state where this happened has legalized open carry. You can walk around with an AR-15 with no permit, it's legal.
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This is certainly strange. What was he doing walking around the store without a shopping cart? If he was there to purchase a pellet rifle then why not go to the checkout when he picked it up instead of hanging around a dead end isle and playing with the rifle? I agree the cops should have given him a warning which it appears they did not but if your going to walk around with what appears to be a real weapon then strange things are bound to happen.
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