WCPO TV News-Cincinnati
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Cincinnati Police released a videotape that they hope will quell violence in Winton Terrace after a suicide that residents apparently thought was a police shooting Monday night.
Officers pulled over Antwand Yett, 19, of the Kings Run apartment complex, around 9 p.m. Monday.
Immediately after being pulled over, police said Yett fatally shot himself; however, people in the community became angry, thinking instead that police had shot the man.
The death and rumors that police shot Yett prompted violence and unrest on the streets of Winton Terrace Monday night. Hundreds of angry people demonstrated in the street and at least four shots were fired at police on the scene.
“It’s unfortunate that the rumor spread,” Streicher said. “I think it’s only natural ... when words spread that there’s a person in a truck and they’ve been shot in the head, you’re going to draw a crowd.”
In addition, a rock damaged a WXIX-TV news van and a WCPO-TV news van was set on fire.
During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher released the in-cruiser video that recorded the traffic stop and the subsequent violence.
Streicher said officers noted Yett’s car was moving eratically, stopping, and also swerving across the double yellow line.
When they decided to pull Yett’s Chevrolet Sububan over at the dead end of Kraft Street, Cincinnati Police officers Brice Besdick and Michelle Bradley turned on the in-cruiser camera which started recording.
What the video tape shows
While the officers were still in their cruiser, a muffled gunshot was barely audible on the tape.
The officers were apparently unaware that the sound was a gunshot -- perhaps it was due to the fact that the windows on the police cruiser and the windows on Yett’s vehicle were up.
Following the gunshot, the tape shows Yett’s vehicle roll forward 10 or 12 feet, and come to a rest with its front tires hit the curb.
Next, the tape shows the officers getting out of the cruiser and walking up to the truck. When the officers noticed Yett was suffering from a gunshot wound, the officers were shown radioing for assistance.
Although it was not viewable on the video tape, one of the officers “removed a gun from Yett’s left leg” and observed that Yett’s left hand was partially covering gun, said Cincinnati Police Officer Tom Streicher.
Death ruled a suicide
Yett’s death has been ruled a suicide by the Hamilton County Coroner.
Mayor, others try to calm community
Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, who reviewed the videotape captured by the police cruiser cam, used his weekly show on WCIN radio to describe what he saw on the videotape.
“You see the police officer stop his van and then you hear a muffled noise and then you see the Suburban roll forward a few feet,” Luken said.
Tuesday afternoon, monitors from the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission will be in Winton Terrace, giving accurate information to residents.
At least 19 black men have died in confrontations with Cincinnati officers since 1995. Police union leaders said the men who died had threatened officers with weapons and in one case beat an officer. The shooting of a fleeing, unarmed black man by a white police officer in 2001 set off three days of rioting.