Bodycam footage of Chicago police fatally shooting a Black man last month shows the man was running away from officers at the time he was shot and that police failed to render aid for several minutes afterward.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the video depicting 24-year-old Maurice Granton Jr.’s shooting was one of several that Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) released on Wednesday. Granton was fatally shot on June 6 (COPA’s policy requires recordings of shootings to be released publicly after 60 days) while officers were “on a narcotics mission.” Officials say Granton pulled a gun on officers attempting to stop him from running, with one officer shooting him in the back during the encounter. He was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medicine trauma center. Police say Granton was armed and that they recovered a gun from the scene that allegedly belonged to him.
In the video taken from the bodycam of the officer who shot Granton, Granton is seen attempting to scale a metal fence. The officer then shoots at Granton while he’s hanging onto the fence, and Granton falls onto the ground; nothing is seen in his hands, according to the Sun-Times’ report.
As Granton is “bleeding for several minutes” on the ground, officers are in the area but not giving him aid. In minutes, onlookers begin yelling at the police. An officer then tells other police to guard a pistol in the lot “several yards away” from Granton. The graphic videos have been shared in full by ABC7 Chicago.
An attorney representing Granton’s family said the video showed an “unjustifiable, unconstitutional execution of Maurice Granton,” and said some of the family were so devastated by the video that they had to leave the room.
A second video, taken from an officer who didn’t shoot Granton, shows Granton jumping over a fence as the cop runs after him. Four gunshots are then heard. Audio cannot be heard at the beginning of the video footage that captured Granton’s shooting. The officer who shot Granton said Granton fired at him first, according to documents, and was assigned to administrative duty for 30 days.
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Granton’s family has said that the gun photographed by police isn’t Granton’s and that he didn’t own one, according to ABC7 Chicago.
“Maurice Granton is running away and, without cause or provocation, the officer shoots multiple times, killing him,” Andrew M. Stroth, an attorney representing the Grantons, told the Sun-Times.
Across Twitter, viewers of the footage have criticized police for the fatal shooting, citing that Granton was running away at the time of the shooting, and therefore not a threat to police. Viewers also took issue with the pace that police took to render Granton aid.
Sorry, but if a young black man is running AWAY from police, trying to scale a fence, the police cannot claim they feared for their lives! The shooting of Maurice Granton JR. IN THE BACK was NOT JUSTIFIED! I’m SO grieved and enraged! #justiceformaurice https://t.co/9lL65QeNa3
— Greg Boyd (@greg_boyd) July 26, 2018
Video of Chicago Police murdering Maurice Granton, a 24 year old father of two, was just been released. The video shows that Granton was climbing a fence when he was gunned down by the police. There is no world in which Maurice was a threat to the officer. https://t.co/xyCAHDOWT5
— agitator in chief (@soit_goes) July 25, 2018
Sheldon Thrasher is a probationary police officer W/CPD, he’s 30 years old. In the body cam video he orders other officers to retrieve a weapon he says belongs to #MauriceGranton 7 times before requesting an ambulance. In his body cam video you never see Granton fire at the PO. pic.twitter.com/qKrV0lhefW
— Tia A. Ewing (@TIA_EWING) July 25, 2018
Family said that Granton, the father to two daughters, “turned his life around” for his children.
“They claim there was an armed confrontation that day. Well, tell us what that confrontation was so this family can have some peace,” Antonio Romanucci, another attorney representing the Grantons, told the news station.
H/T Daily Mail