Police in Akron, Ohio, have released body-cam footage of the shooting in which a 15-year-old African-American boy, Jazmir Tucker, lost his life in a horrific incident that the city’s mayor called “deeply troubling.” Video of Tucker’s killing, which occurred on Thanksgiving evening, suggests that an officer immediately fired at the teenager as soon as he encountered him and that a group of police officers waited at least seven minutes to approach the boy after he was shot.
The family’s attorneys stated that the officers did not begin to render aid to the young man until 10 minutes later. “The amount of time that expired between the shooting and the initiation of physical aid to Jazmir is deeply troubling to me,” Akron’s mayor, Shammas Malik, said, ““I want to be clear that any unreasonable delay in the rendering of aid by police officers is unacceptable and has no place in Akron.”
Police said two patrol officers heard gunshots nearby shortly after 11 p.m. on Nov. 28 and got out of their parked car to investigate. They then ran into Jazmir and chased him. One of the police officers opened fire with his assault rifle at the teenager. The boy was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
A gun, unused by Tucker, was found inside the 15-year-old’s pockets. The video released by the police is somewhat unclear as to the events that occurred. In the first 30 seconds, during which the officer fires about 7 shots, the audio is muted. The rifle used by the policeman also covers most of the view. Jazmir is not visible in the moments before and during the shooting.
About seven minutes after the shooting, between eight and ten officers converge on the young man. At that point, they handcuff him and search his pockets. It is not clear why the police had not activated the cameras when they arrived at the scene, and why they used the assault rifles. The officer who fired the shots has been on the force for almost five years. He and his partner have been placed on paid administrative leave, according to department policy, and their names have not been released.
“These officers came out with the intent to do one thing: shoot and kill,” Tucker family attorney Robert Gresham said in a statement, “What I perceive to be the biggest issue here is that there’s a culture of violence in this particular police department.”
“It hurt me to see that no one helped my baby,” said Ashley Greene, Jazmir’s mother, on the other hand, ““The police never addressed us. I had to find out that was my son through social media.”
