WASHINGTON — A federal civil rights investigation has been launched into the police shooting death of a D.C. teenager last month.
A US Park Police (USPP) officer shot and killed 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin, on March 18, after Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers found him in a car, in D.C.’s River Terrace neighborhood, they thought was stolen.
On Wednesday, the United States Attorney’s Office in D.C. called Martin’s death “extremely upsetting” and added it would investigate further the circumstances that led up to his shooting.
“In coordination with the FBI Washington Field Office, the United States Attorney’s Office has opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances leading to Mr. Martin’s death,” a USAO statement reads. “That investigation, which we are committed to conducting diligently and thoroughly, is ongoing. As this is an open matter, we are not able to provide additional comment or release further information at this time.”
Body camera footage, released Tuesday by USPP and MPD, showed two USPP officers enter the car Martin was in.
The video showed that when Martin woke up, he sped off with one officer still in the back seat of the car.
The officer then asked Martin to stop the vehicle.
“Stop,” the officer said. “Stop or I'll shoot."
The officer then fatally fires on Martin just one second later. The Martin family said their son was shot five times in the back.
On Wednesday, the Martins held a press conference at Attorney Andrew O. Clarke’s office in National Harbor, Maryland.
Martin’s mother, Terra, said she was still trying to wrap her head around her loss.
"He's my baby,” she said. “That's my baby."
Martin added she wants all the officers involved in the case identified and punished.
"[The shooting officer] got in that car because he had another motive for my son,” she said.
Clarke said the family cannot even file a civil lawsuit yet since the officers have yet to be identified.
The process to identify the officers may take awhile, however.
The public did not learn which USPP officers shot and killed Virginia man, Bijan Ghaisar, in Fairfax County, in 2017, for a year and a half.
"By any means necessary, [the shooting officer] was going to take him out of that vehicle, even if it meant taking his life," Clarke said.
The family added it's particularly angry because it says officials initially only showed them the edited USPP body camera footage, in DC's Behavioral Health offices, Tuesday.
They said they first saw the raw material of what happened on the news.
Additionally, they said they also disliked how the USPP union revealed officers found a gun in the car after last month's shooting.
"Please consider that a gun was recovered from the vehicle, the vehicle was stolen, the officer had a lawful reason to enter the vehicle, and both officers involved took appropriate actions for lawful reasons,” a Fraternal Order of Police US Park Police Labor Committee statement reads.
However, District senior officials revealed Tuesday it is still unclear who the firearm in the car belonged to.
"There was never any threat for the use of guns," Clarke said.
Martin’s family declined to answer any questions about whether he actually stole the car, but added the officer should still have never used the force that he did.
Meanwhile, a USPP spokesperson told WUSA9 they were not involved in the process as to how to show the family the body camera footage of the shooting when questioned about it Tuesday.
Neither DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office nor DC Police have responded to requests for comment about that matter either.
Neither Park Police Officer involved in the case has been charged.