US

Attorney Shares Details Of Fatal Wal-Mart Police Shooting Video

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

Surveillance video of the fatal police shooting of John Crawford in an Ohio Wal-Mart earlier this month shows the 22-year-old talking on the phone and leaning on an air rifle sold in the store before he was shot, the attorney for Crawford’s family says.

Crawford, a father of two, was shot by two police officers Aug. 5 after several shoppers called 911 to report that a man was carrying a gun around the store.

The gun turned out to be a Crosman MK-177 pellet gun, which Wal-Mart sells for approximately $100.

The Crawford family, along with their attorney Michael Wright, were shown portions of the surveillance video last week and shared what they saw in a press conference Tuesday.

Wright said that Crawford was on a cell phone before the shooting and was likely not aware that police were approaching. He also said that the video showed Crawford leaning on the butt of the air rifle while on the phone. In the next frame, he is shown on the ground after having been shot.

“From what we’ve seen, John had no opportunity to put the gun down,” Wright said, adding that Crawford was “doing nothing more, nothing less than shopping,” according to WHIO.

Crawford’s girlfriend has said that she was on the phone with him at the time of the shooting. She said she heard the father of two say “It’s not real” before the shots were fired.

One question that arose in the hazy aftermath of the shooting was whether Crawford removed the air rifle from any packaging before carrying it around the store.

But Wright told The Daily Caller that the video viewed by the family showed that the “gun was not in packaging when Mr. Crawford picked it up from the shelf.”

He also told TheDC that the family “was not shown all of the video.”

Just hours after the shooting, Beavercreek police turned the investigation over to the Ohio attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Authorities released several 911 calls and audio from police dispatch radio. On one of those calls, a shopper said that Crawford was pointing the air rifle at others in the store, including children. (RELATED: Cops Kill Man In Wal-Mart Carrying An Air Rifle)

Wright said at Tuesday’s press conference that he believes authorities have only released information that benefits them.

“Everything released is one-sided,” Wright said, according to WDTN. “There is nothing favorable to John Crawford. You can’t show different pieces, show it all, don’t trickle pieces to gain favor of the public.”

Attorney general Michael DeWine defended the decision to keep the store video from the public, saying that airing it could bias the grand jury he has convened.

“What’s important is that it’s not been publicly released. I thought the family had the right to view it. The mom did not want to view it. I understand it. The dad did view it,” said DeWine. “To put the video out on TV is not the right thing to do.”

DeWine said in a press release last week that investigators are reviewing 203 security cameras in the store. They have gathered 12 pieces of physical evidence and had interviewed more than 50 witnesses.

The grand jury will convene Sept. 22. DeWine also appointed a special prosecutor, assistant Hamilton County prosecutor Mark Piepmeier, who has handled more than 100 officer-involved shooting cases, according to WHIO.

Wright said at Tuesday’s press conference that a special prosecutor is not enough. He wants the Justice Department to investigate.

The shooting occurred just days before the fatal police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Brown’s death has received much more national attention. Though Wright contacted Al Sharpton and his National Action Network, the civil rights activist has only weighed in on Brown’s case.

One of the officers who shot Crawford was placed back on the job last week. The shock of the gun fire was tragic in another way.  A 37-year-old mother shopping in the Beavercreek store had a fatal heart attack during the gunfire.

Follow Chuck on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel