WASHINGTON — After a DC Police officer shot and killed a man over the weekend, authorities released the body-worn camera footage of the incident.
The shooting happened before 4:15 p.m. on Saturday. A preliminary investigation found that two dark-colored vehicles were headed northbound on Georgia Avenue Northwest when they opened fire on a group of people who were walking on Longfellow Street Northwest.
The individuals then returned fire, according to police. In a press conference on Friday, Police Chief Robert Contee III said that when officers responded to the report of a shooting, they found two boys, aged 17 and 15, suffering from gunshot wounds in a nearby Auto Zone parking lot.
Contee said three firearms were found at that scene.
About two minutes later, another witness said the shooter was spotted in an alley tossing something under a vehicle and provided police with a description of the suspect, Contee said.
According to Contee, when officers arrived and spoke with the witness, they were told that the suspect was still in the alley. Officers spotted this person and gave chase on foot until the suspect was seen jumping into a white sedan with several other people.
The vehicle sped off and a lookout was broadcast to other officers.
A Fourth District Sergeant, identified as Officer Ronaldo Camacho, spotted the car and engaged in a pursuit with lights and sirens activated, Contee said in the Friday press conference.
In an effort to evade police, the sedan struck a curb near a neighborhood park, captured by nearby home surveillance video.
Three people inside the car bailed out and ran through the park. Contee said police are still looking for those people.
The driver of the vehicle ran into the park as the MPD officer pulled behind the car and partially exited his cruiser.
Police said the officer fired one shot after confronting the armed man as he exited the vehicle. The wounded man, later identified by his sister as 31-year-old Kevin Hargraves-Shird, eventually died from his injuries. His sister Serena demanded transparency from the Metropolitan Police Department.
"I need to see what happened," she told WUSA9 on Saturday.
Nearly a week after the shooting, MPD released the footage from cameras worn by officers during the incident.
The body camera video released Friday is less than two minutes long and picks up right after the white sedan crashed and the suspects fled.
The officer is seen with his gun in his hand as he gets out of the car. He yells "Gun, gun, gun, gun, gun!" before firing. Behind the door, he shoots the man in his right ear. The video doesn’t show exactly where the man, who was 35 yards away, was positioned and if he was holding a gun.
A gun was recovered near his body on the ground. He was initially handcuffed until officers rendered CPR.
"It is our policy that we render first aid but with respect to handcuffing, it really kind of depends on the officer's assessment of the scene and control of the scene," Contee said.
Camacho, a 17-year veteran of the department, remains on administrative leave.
Before a press conference with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to discuss the video, the victim's sister and other family members were in the room upset by what happened.
"That officer pulled his gun out way before the scene," Serena Hargraves told WUSA9 after the meeting. "He had intent to kill."
City officials refrained from determining if the shooting was justified or not since the U.S. Attorney's Office is conducting its own investigation. DC Police has an internal review underway as well.
The way the body camera was angled, the full incident was not captured. It fails to answer whether Hargraves-Shird was holding the gun when he was shot and if his body ever turned towards Camacho.
"You cannot see exactly what he was doing at that point which is why we are not able to make a final determination," Contee said. "He's certainly running."
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