West News Wire: The instant one of its officers shot and killed a teen last month in Washington, D.C., is captured on video and was made available by the U.S. Park Police on Tuesday.
The event happened on March 18 in the morning. At around 8:51 a.m. ET, a Metropolitan Police Department officer was responding to a report about a suspicious car parked at 34th Street and Baker Street NE. According to independent press releases from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police, the officer who arrived on the scene discovered the vehicle with the engine running and the driver, identified as 17-year-old D.C. resident Dalaneo Martin, who appeared to be asleep inside.
When the officer realized the car was stolen, he made a backup contact. Two U.S. Park Police and additional Metropolitan Police Department police officers arrived on scene to assist, police said.
Footage from the officers’ body cameras, released by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police, show them attempting to remove Martin from the car at approximately 9:30 a.m. ET. The videos show an officer cutting plastic that was in place of the right backseat window and unlocking the door. The two U.S. Park Police officers then enter the vehicle from the backseat doors and grab Martin by his hands while shouting, “Police! Don’t move!”
Martin awakes and a brief struggle ensues, the video shows. Martin drives the car away with one of the U.S. Park Police officers inside while the other falls out onto the street, the videos show. Body camera footage from the officer still in the backseat shows Martin pulling his hands away and placing them on the steering wheel while continuing to drive. The officer shouts at him from the backseat to “stop” while Martin yells back, “Get off of me!”
“Stop, man, just let me out,” the officer says in the video while pulling out his firearm. “Let me go!”
Martin keeps driving, the footage shows.
With his gun drawn, the officer then shouts: “Stop! Stop or I’ll shoot!”
About a second later, the officer is seen in the video firing his weapon multiple times, with the bullets appearing to strike Martin in the back. The vehicle then crashes into a house on 36th Street NE.
Another video shows both U.S. Park Police officers rendering aid to Martin, who is seen lying on the grass next to the car after the crash.
Medics arrived and pronounced Martin dead at the scene, according to police.
