By Caleb Downs
The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH, Texas — A new video released by a law firm Tuesday appears to show a Fort Worth police officer shooting a man, who police say was holding with a box cutter, in the back as he walked away from police.
David Collie, the man shot by the officer, released the dashcam footage of the shooting through his attorney, Nate Washington of The Washington Law Firm, according to KXAS-TV (NBC5).
The Fort Worth Police Department told NBC5 in an email that they don’t plan to comment on the video.
Collie said he decided to publish the video after he saw the viral Facebook video of a Fort Worth officer wrestle a woman to the ground before arresting her and her two daughters after she called to report a man assaulting her son.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen from the Fort Worth police officer in that video is not an isolated incident,” Washington said. “Many members of our community have been assaulted, handled roughly by Fort Worth police officers. To be clear, we believe the vast majority of police officers are good and decent people.”
According to NBC5, Collie was shot on July 27, 2016, after an off-duty Fort Worth police officer and an off-duty Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office deputy mistook him for a suspect in a robbery at a gas station.
The responding officers had been informed that a suspect in the robbery had pulled out a silver handgun and robbed someone they had met online and agreed to meet to purchase items from them.
The suspects were described as two shirtless black men, and when the responding officers saw Collie without a shirt on in an apartment complex in the 8700 block of North Normandale Street, they believed he matched the description.
The video shows the officers get out of their squad car and approach Collie, who raises one hand toward them and is then shot in the back.
Police say Collie refused commands to put his hands up and that he had pulled a silver box cutter out of his pocket and pointed it at the deputy, prompting the officer to shoot him.
Washington said Collie didn’t threaten police with the box cutter and that Collie didn’t even have it in his hand.
“I wasn’t there that night. I do know what I saw,” Washington told NBC5. “I know I never saw this man with a weapon. I never saw this man advance toward the officers. I know I saw him get shot in his back.”
Collie was hospitalized for 61 days and was paralyzed below his abdomen. He was charged with aggravated assault on a public servant, but a grand jury dismissed the case.
“We want justice for David,” Washington said. “We want change, but we also want peace and calm from the community after they see this video.”
Copyright 2016 The Dallas Morning News