Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday on Twitter that the police “responsible for murdering” Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia should be “arrested, investigated, and prosecuted by the Justice Department.”
Walter Wallace should be alive today, and our thoughts are with his loved ones. The police responsible for murdering him in front of his mother instead of getting him the medical attention he needed should be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted by the Justice Department.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 28, 2020
“Walter Wallace should be alive today, and our thoughts are with his loved ones,” Sanders said in the tweet. “The police responsible for murdering him in front of his mother instead of getting him the medical attention he needed should be arrested, investigated, and prosecuted by the Justice Department.”
Wallace, 27, was killed by police after officers responded Monday to a report of a man with a weapon. When they arrived at the scene, they encountered a man with a knife who was told repeatedly to drop the knife, according to police. The man didn’t follow calls to drop the knife, and police opened fire, shooting him multiple times.
Wallace’s family says he had mental health issues. He had bipolar disorder and was in crisis during the time of the shooting, his family said according to CNN.
Relatives had reportedly called authorities multiple times throughout the day to ask for an ambulance, but the police arrived first, the Wallace family’s attorney, Shaka Johnson, said according to CNN. It’s unclear how many times police responded to the home.(RELATED: Here’s How The Media Is Describing Violence In Philadelphia)
Two officers shot and killed Wallace, and officials did not answer questions Tuesday about whether the officers were there earlier or what the officers know about the situation prior to arriving at the scene, CNN reported.
The officers have yet to be named, and are both on desk duty pending an investigation, according to CNN. The federal government is “looking into” the fatal officer-involved shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office opened its own investigation into the shooting soon afterward.
It is unclear whether the FBI will open its own formal investigations.
Philadelphia police commissioner Danielle Outlaw announced Wednesday that authorities will release the body camera footage and 911 tapes involved in the police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. “in the near future.”