By Christine Byers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CLAYTON, Mo. — St. Louis County police released on Thursday a Ferguson officer’s body camera footage from the day they say an 18-year-old shot himself during an encounter with police in Normandy.
The footage does not show the moment on Oct. 28 when police say Amonderez Green turned his revolver on himself, but it shows officers initially approaching Green near a playground and telling him they want to make sure he’s OK. Green appears irritated that officers are stopping him, saying at one point, “I’m not doing anything illegal.”
Green continues walking while the officer with the camera stays and talks with other officers.
In a second video, Green can be seen lying on a lawn. An officer is heard telling other arriving officers that he saw Green fire shots from a revolver that is seen a few feet away from his body. The officer says he kicked the gun away from Green after Green shot himself under the chin.
At one point, the officer tells the others, “FYI, we’re live,” and another says, “Damn, dude, that was close.”
The video was released by St. Louis County police, who are handling the investigation of the shooting.
The incident began when a Ferguson police lieutenant driving south in the 5800 block of Bermuda Drive was contacted about 2 p.m. by a resident who reported Green, who was walking in the area, to be possibly suicidal, police said. The scene was near the Normandy-Ferguson city line.
Normandy and Ferguson officers followed Green into a neighborhood and tried talking to him in a front yard in the 7700 block of Ellington Drive, police said. Green was uncooperative, pulled a silver revolver from his waistband and began firing at the officers, authorities said.
A Normandy officer used a stun gun on Green, but it wasn’t effective, according to police. The Normandy officer fired three gunshots at Green but missed, police said. Green ran, fleeing through backyards into the 7700 block of Paddington Drive. Green fired an additional shot at officers while they were chasing after him. Officers lost sight of him and heard another gunshot, police said.
None of that is shown in the Ferguson body camera videos released Thursday because it involved Normandy officers, who do not have body cameras, according to St. Louis County Sgt. Brian Schellman.
Officers found Green on the ground and began giving first aid, according to Normandy police. Police said none of the Normandy officer’s shots had hit Green.
An autopsy conducted on Green showed he sustained one self-inflicted gunshot wound under the chin, St. Louis County police said.
The bullet recovered during the autopsy showed the round had been fired from a .38-caliber revolver, police said. Police found a .38-caliber revolver with Green’s body, and ballistics matched the bullet that killed Green to that gun. Forensic testing found his DNA on the gun but no usable fingerprints for comparison.
Police said the gun contained four spent shell casings and two live rounds. Three nearby homes were hit by gunfire, and ballistic tests on one of the bullets that hit one of the homes matched the gun Green was carrying.
Relatives and people who said they witnessed the incident challenged the police version of events. Some said he was shot by officers.
Schellman said the video clips were unaltered and were the complete versions of the footage they received from Ferguson police as part of the St. Louis County police investigation.
On Thursday, Green’s mother, Lakea Green, said the videos did not change her belief that her son had been killed by police.
She questioned why police didn’t release video from the start of the incident to the end.
“I believe they left information out, and I feel there’s more to it,” Lakea Green, 38, said. “The video proves nothing.”
She and her fiancé, Anthony Cosentino, asked witnesses to step forward. “Take a stand against police violence,” Cosentino, 29, urged.
Green’s father said he hadn’t seen the video released by police. He said he didn’t want to see it.
“I don’t trust that or anything,” Jermell Simpson said. “They can alter anything they are doing. I want to see the truth.”
He said he was nearby during the incident and knows what happened. “The video is in my head,” he said.
Simpson said the day that his son died, he was told that officers did not have on body cameras. He said he has an attorney but declined to say who was representing his family.
“I’m not disclosing any information,” he said. “I’ve been advised not to say anything.”
Schellman said St. Louis County police released all of the footage that Ferguson provided and did so only after determining that it would not compromise the investigation and after informing the family.
“Our detectives have to dissect the video, and once they feel the video will not compromise the case going forward, we will release the video,” Schellman said. “We had requests for the video, and we want to be as transparent as possible.”
Ferguson Spokesman Jeff Small was unsure if more footage existed and said he did not know why there were two video clips.
The body cameras used by Ferguson police can be turned on and off by officers.
Coypright 2015 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch