A follow-up to Jazz’s post via the Daily Beast. The clip Jazz posted was taken from 15-20 feet away and includes footage only of the first gunshot; the person who recorded it dove for cover after that, capturing only the audio of the subsequent shots. This one is taken from what looks to be a mere seven or eight feet away and stays trained on the cops and Sterling throughout. He does appear to be pinned down, although between the poor quality of the video and the fact that his hands and arms are obscured, there’s no way to tell whether he’s reaching for something.
Watch at 00:32, after the fatal shots were fired, as one of the cops steps in from out of frame on the right and pulls something out of Sterling’s pants pocket. As they had him pinned down, one of the cops screamed, “He’s got a gun!” They may have thought it was a gun in his right pocket and that Sterling was struggling to reach it, which would explain why it was a priority to remove it even after Sterling was shot and lying there bleeding. Why a guy flat on his back with his arms pinned to his sides and two cops aiming point blank at his heart would have been reaching for a weapon makes no sense to me, though. Maybe he was reaching for his wallet and the cops misunderstood?
Hmmm: “Police said at a Wednesday press conference they would not confirm or deny a weapon was recovered from Sterling.”
Be warned that the clip shows the shooting in complete detail. You’re watching a man die here.
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