UPDATE: 3:40 PM EST
Surveillance video from the Beavercreek Walmart showing the shooting of John Crawford III has been released to the public.
Note: The images in the below video may be disturbing to some viewers.
SOURCE: WOhio
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A special grand jury has decided not to indict the officers in the police shooting that killed 22-year-old John Crawford III in an Ohio Walmart last month.
Crawford’s Beavercreek shooting was the county’s third police-involved fatal shooting in five years. There were no indictments in the previous cases either.
Crawford was shot and killed while holding a pellet gun that Walmart sells in their stores.
Crawford’s family attorney, Michael Wright, says surveillance video from Aug. 5 shows the young man in the Ohio Walmart talking on a cell phone with his back to police. The 22-year-old is leaning on the unpackaged MK-177 (.177 caliber) BB/pellet rifle. Police responded to reports of an armed man in the store, shooting Crawford on sight.
Police maintain that Crawford ignored their demands to drop the weapon. Wright, however, says the tape contradicts those statements and those of witnesses who said he “looked like he was going to get violent.”
“John was doing nothing wrong in Walmart, nothing more, nothing less than shopping,” Wright said in a statement. He said the 22-year-old father of two was shot “on sight” in a “militaristic” response by police.
An eyewitness who initially told officers Crawford was pointing the fake gun at customers retracted his statement, saying the victim never raised the rifle.
The grand jury found officers were justified in their actions. A surveillance video has yet to be released to the public.
We’ll keep you updated with the latest in this case.
SOURCE: WOhio | PHOTO CREDIT: Handout
