WASHINGTON — DC Police shot and killed a man they say was armed after he was found asleep behind the wheel sitting at a traffic light in Northeast D.C. early Wednesday morning. While Chief Robert Contee said he had viewed the bodyworn camera footage from the scene, which MPD is releasing Thursday, he was quick to note that the officer's view was obstructed by a ballistic shield.
A press briefing with Contee mere hours after the shooting yielded more questions than answers Wednesday, but new video from a woman who said she witnessed the whole thing offers fresh insight into what led ultimately to 27-year-old Antwan Gilmore's death.
Jordan White, who lives in D.C., said she was driving to a friend's house who had just lost a family member around 3 a.m. She noticed several officers around a car, so she turned around and started filming on her phone.
“Nowadays, you just record when you see stuff like that," White said.
She said she saw the officers take turns tapping on the window.
"It was like the first two times they tapped and stepped back," she said. "And it was like the third time they walked up to it and tapped it. And it's like the car jerked a little.”
The video shows the car lurching forward and then stopping for a few seconds, before moving out of frame. White can be heard saying, "Oh my god!" right before WUSA9 counted 10 shots fired.
RELATED: Police: Officer shoots, kills man after he was found asleep at a traffic light with a gun in the car
Contee said at least four to five officers engaged with the man during the encounter, but the chief believes only one officer fired a shot. In White's video, WUSA9 counted at least eight officers around the car before shots were fired.
When asked if the man reached for the gun as he was being woken up, Chief Contee's answer was "it's hard to say" because the officer's shield was blocking the bodyworn camera view, reiterating that he needed to interview his officer to learn more.
“Automatically I'm like, what about his family?" White said. "Like they don't even know this is going on right now. I saw somebody's last moments just like that, you know, like it was just quick. If that was me, I would want somebody to have been there ... to speak for me if I'm no longer here."
White said her 8-year-old twins were crouching down in the back seat for all of this -- one urging her to leave.
"You teach your kids that those [the police] are the people who protect you, and all that, so now I have to go back and have a conversation," White said.
This was the second shooting involving a DC Police officer within 24 hours.
"It's unfortunate that we have to come face-to-face with armed gunmen in our community," Contee said. "It makes the communities unsafe, it makes officers unsafe."
WUSA9 reached out to police for comment on this new video, but they did not respond as of Wednesday night.
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