On Wednesday, the Fresno, California Police Department released body camera footage from the two officers involved in a fatal police shooting last month.
The footage can be seen here (Warning: The following video contains content that some readers may consider to be graphic in nature.) It shows the series of events on June 25 that ended with 19-year-old Dylan Noble dead. Police Chief Jerry Dyer told the Fresno Bee that he had watched the video "40 times," but that an investigation was still ongoing, and he could not say yet whether the shooting was justified.
The names of the two officers involved are currently being withheld due, Dyer claimed, to threats against them. He did reveal that one of the officers had 20 years' experience at the department, and one had 17 years as an officer, 10 of which were in Fresno. The less-experienced officer was also involved in a shooting in 2009.
The footage shows the two officers approaching Noble, who was in his truck, having pulled over after an extended chase. He gets out of the truck, though an officer can be heard on the video saying that he told Noble not to do so. Noble exits the truck and walks towards the officers, who say that if he continues towards them, he will be shot.
Immediately afterwards, Noble says, "I [expletive] hate my life," and takes several more steps towards the officers. They shoot twice, and he collapses. Afterwards, the officers fired two more shots with twelve seconds between them, because Noble refused their requests to show both of his hands.
Although Dyer said both officers believed Noble was ready to shoot them, it was later shown that he was unarmed. Noble's mother Veronica Nelson has filed suit against the city.
Reactions to the body camera footage were mixed. Some observers thought it clearly showed that the shots — particularly the final two, when Noble was already on the ground — were not justified.
Others, however, thought it made clear that Noble wanted to be shot by the officers, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as "suicide by cop." It has also been reported that officers inside the department have been using that phrase to refer to the shooting.
Three separate investigations of the shooting, including one by the FBI, are underway. Warren Paboojian, an attorney for Noble's father Darren Noble, responded to Dyer's characterization of the events surrounding the teenager's death.
"People are going to question Dylan's conduct," the attorney said. "The officers never gave Dylan an explanation or a chance to speak. The officers never...ask[ed] him, 'Do you have a gun?' All they were doing was telling a young boy who may have been under the influence of some alcohol to do a bunch of commands for a routine traffic stop."
