By Police1 Staff
LOS ANGELES — An attorney for the family of a teen who was fatally shot by an LAPD officer released body cam footage of the incident.
The Los Angeles Times reports that attorney Humberto Guizar released side-by-side body cam footage Tuesday of the officers involved in the 2016 fatal shooting of 14-year-old Jesse Romero. The attorney argued that the video showed Romero tossed his gun and was unarmed before he was shot.
In August 2016, officers responded to a vandalism report behind an apartment complex where Romero and a group of boys were tagging graffiti. When officers spotted at least two boys outside the complex, Romero started fleeing.
The two officers pursued Romero on foot and ordered the teen to stop multiple times.
A gunshot can be heard in the video of the incident as the officers approached a street corner.
Officer Eden Medina appears to peek around the corner and tells his colleague “shots fired.” Medina turns onto a street with his firearm drawn, and echoes of gunfire can be heard on video.
As the officer approaches a wounded Romero lying on the sidewalk, a revolver is seen on the other side of a fence. Police said Romero was shot in his stomach and chest.
The video doesn’t show Romero getting shot, but Guizar alleged that if Romero was holding a gun when Medina peered around the corner, the officer wouldn’t have walked into the line of fire. The attorney also alleged that since the gun was found several feet away, the teen must have tossed it before he was shot.
In a statement released Tuesday, the LAPD said it was aware of the video’s release and pointed to its “thorough investigation” of the shooting. The department said the inspector general and the LA Police Commission determined that the officer’s use of force was appropriate.
Medina was cleared in the shooting in March. Prosecutors said the officer reasonably believed Romero posed a deadly threat and used “reasonable force” to protect himself and others.
Prosecutors also wrote that after examining and testing the revolver, an investigator said “most likely explanation of the evidence was that the revolver was fired, then dropped.”