Five officers with the Oklahoma City Police Department were charged Wednesday with first-degree manslaughter after the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez.
Police shot Rodriguez on Nov. 23 while responding to an armed robbery call at a convenience store, according to Fox News.
Video released from the Oklahoma City Police Department shows the encounter between 15-year-old Stavian Rodriguez and Oklahoma City police before he was killed. Click below for more on this story ????https://t.co/kW49ONqqTh pic.twitter.com/RvmMWlN23g
— KOKH FOX 25 (@OKCFOX) March 11, 2021
One officer shot Rodriguez with a “less-lethal” round before Rodriguez allegedly had one hand in his pocket and another near his waist. Five other officers then fired lethal rounds at Rodriguez, Fox News reported. (RELATED: Police Gun Down Deaf Man As Neighbors Shout ‘He Can’t Hear You’)
Rodriguez reportedly suffered 13 gunshot wounds as a result of the shooting.
Officers Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, John Skuta and Brad Pemberton, if convicted, could reportedly face up to life in prison.
“Officers must make life and death decisions in a split second, relying on their training. When an armed robbery suspect did not obey police commands, five officers perceived the same threat and simultaneously fired their weapons,” President of the Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police John George said, according to Fox News.
The charges come the same week as the trial begins for Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with killing George Floyd May 25, 2020.