The family of John Crawford, the 22-year-old shot by police in an Ohio Wal-Mart for holding a fake gun, are requesting surveillance video in hopes of getting answers about the shooting incident that left him dead.
Family attorney Michael Wright said that the family hasn’t heard back from police or Wal-Mart regarding the requested footage.
From the Huffington Post:
The family’s attorney and the father of John Crawford III said Monday that they requested surveillance video and communications between police and store security from Aug. 5, when Crawford was shot in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek. Police said Crawford, 22, waved an air rifle at customers and was fatally shot by officers when he wouldn’t drop it.
Crawford’s father said in a telephone interview that his son wasn’t a bad person.
“He was a good son and a good father to his two children,” John Crawford Jr., of Jackson, Tennessee, said. “I am positive he will be vindicated once the facts are known.”
A spokesperson for Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation said they hadn’t yet seen a request. The police have asked the state to take over the investigation.
Crawford’s family, however, are hoping the U.S. attorney’s office will take charge of the investigation.
“We want a set of independent eyes that can take an unbiased look,” Wright said. “We don’t believe a Wal-Mart customer should be holding a BB gun they sell and get killed.”
If you recall, Crawford was holding a BB gun in one hand and a cell phone in the other. A witness told a 911 dispatcher that a man had a rifle and appeared to be loading it.
LeeCee Johnson, who has claimed to be the mother of Mr Crawford’s two children, said she was speaking to him on the telephone when police descended on the scene. Dayton Daily News report her as saying: ‘We was just talking. He said he was at the video games playing videos and he went over there by the toy section where the toy guns were. And the next thing I know, he said “It’s not real,” and the police start shooting and they said “Get on the ground,” but he was already on the ground because they had shot him.’ ‘And I could hear him just crying and screaming. I feel like they shot him down like he was not even human.’
Police maintain that Crawford waved the gun at customers and wouldn’t drop it.
The victim is survived by his two children with Johnson; one-year-old John Crawford IV and Jayden Crawford, who is 4-months-old.
SOURCE: Huffington Post, Daily Mail | PHOTO CREDIT: Handout
