Newly released footage from the December 2011 fatal police shooting of 24-year-old black man Anthony Lamar Smith has brought to light the possibility of an officer planting a gun in Smith’s car after the shooting. The police shooting resurfaces while tensions are at an all-time high following the fatal police shootings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Scott in Oklahoma and North Carolina, respectively.
The video was released by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which obtained footage from a store, police video, and video from a bystander's cellphone. Officers Jason Stockley and Brian Bianchi tried to arrest Smith after a suspected drug deal outside a restaurant,leading to a high speed chase. According to court documents, Stockley said during the chase, "Going to kill this motherf***** don't you know it."
The chase ended when the officers hit Smith's car with their SUV. It was then that Stockley walked up to the driver's window of Smith's car and reportedly shot five times. In a memo obtained by the Post-Dispatch, Stockley wrote that Bianchi saw Smith "reaching for a silver weapon, believed to be a handgun, on the passenger seat." Later on in the memo, Stockley would say he found the alleged gun between the center console and passenger seat of Smith's car and unloaded it.
However, video of the incident showed Stockley returning to the SUV twice instead of once like he said in the memo. The second time, the police video shows Stockley reaching into a duffle bag, but his body doesn't allow for much to be seen. Stockley then returns to Smith's car, where Smith is removed and Stockley proceeds to sit in the driver's seat as Smith's body lies on the ground.
According to court documents, Stockley's DNA was the only one found on the gun found in the car. Citing new evidence, prosecutors charged Stockley with first degree murder earlier this year, though they have not accused him of planting the gun.
