Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ordered a suburban Los Angeles city on Tuesday to release video of police fatally shooting an unarmed man two years ago.
The public should be able to see what led the city of Gardena to pay $4.7 million to settle a lawsuit with the family of the dead man and another man wounded in the shooting, Judge Stephen V. Wilson said.
“The fact that they spent the city’s money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public’s interest in seeing the videos,” Wilson wrote in his 13-page decision. “Moreover, defendants cannot assert a valid compelling interest in sealing the videos to cover up any wrongdoing on their part or to shield themselves from embarrassment.”
A lawyer representing The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg had asserted there is intense public scrutiny of police shootings nationwide. The media organizations asked the judge to unseal the videos under a First Amendment right to access court documents.
“We applaud the court’s decision to unseal the video,” AP spokesman Paul Colford said. “The Associated Press, joining with other news organizations, believes it’s important that the public has access to videos like this to better understand the actions of their police officers.”
Wilson rejected a request by Gardena to stay the ruling, but the city immediately filed a notice of appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Footage shot from three police-car cameras shows the killing of Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, who was stopped by police investigating a bicycle theft early the morning of June 2, 2013.
Zeferino, 34, was actually trying to help his brother find his stolen bike, but he was shot when he didn’t obey officers’ commands to stand still with his hands in the air, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney in a report outlining why the office didn’t charge the officers. Witnesses said Zeferino was trying to tell officers that two other friends they had stopped were the wrong men.
An autopsy found he was drunk and had methamphetamine in his system.
The ruling comes amid public debates over what footage should be made public as police officers and cruisers are increasingly equipped with cameras to capture evidence that can be used against criminals or to hold officers accountable for their own behavior.
Gardena was joined by police chiefs and officer groups around the state in arguing that making such videos public would dissuade cities from employing the technology.
Wilson said that was a political concern and not for him to judge.
The city of Gardena argued that releasing the footage would create a “rush to judgment” about the officers’ behavior, but Wilson dismissed that idea during arguments Monday. He said the public may see the videos and reach the same conclusion as prosecutors that the shooting was justified.
Lawyers for Diaz-Zeferino have pushed for release of the video, saying it would show just the opposite.
“Once released, the public will see that my clients didn’t do anything wrong,” Sonia Mercado, an attorney for Diaz-Zeferino’s family, said. “They were standing there with their hands up in the air.”