Moment a US cop shot a black driver in his car
Yet another killing by police leaves America reeling
A US policeman has been charged with murder after shooting dead a black motorist during a routine traffic stop.
Ray Tensing, 25, shot Samuel DuBose at close range in a row over a driving licence and is accused of lying about it afterwards.
Footage from the policeman’s body camera reveals Mr DuBose remained inside the vehicle as the row escalated and appeared to do nothing threatening.
The killing is the latest controversial police shooting to hit America, which has seen race relations take the biggest plunge for a generation. Prosecutors decided to indict Tensing – a campus policeman at the University of Cincinnati – ‘without question’ after reviewing the footage.
As the officer made his first court appearance yesterday, prosecuting attorney Joseph Deters accused the defendant of a ‘senseless, asinine shooting,’ adding: ‘This doesn’t happen in the United States, OK?
‘This might happen in Afghanistan. People don’t get shot for a traffic stop.’
Mr DuBose, 43, was shot dead on July 19 when Tensing pulled him over near the university campus for not having a licence plate
‘Making an excuse’
on the front of his car. The footage, released last night, shows the officer asking why Mr DuBose does not have his driver’s licence with him. The motorist is then asked to take off his seat belt and a struggle ensues.
The row culminates with Tensing drawing his gun and shooting Mr DuBose in the head as he stands by the driver’s side window.
At no point does Mr DuBose appear to reach for the officer’s gun or appear to threaten him, it is alleged. At a press conference Mr Deters said the footage contradicts Tensing’s claim in his police report that Mr DuBose’s car had been dragging him along.
The officer was ‘making an excuse for a purposeful killing’, he said, adding: ‘People want to believe that Mr DuBose had done something violent towards the officer – he did not.
‘He did not at all. I feel so sorry for his family and what they lost, and I feel sorry for the community, too.’
He also questioned why a university police officer was stopping a motorist at all. Tensing denied murder in court yesterday and bail was set at £640,000.
His lawyer Stew Matthews said that Tensing will claim that he acted in self-defence.
Police in the US have been under scrutiny since shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last August. The unarmed 18- year- old was shot dead by white former officer Darren Wilson, who did not face charges.
White officers were also involved in the fatal shooting of a boy of 12 in Cleveland, Ohio, and a black man in North Charleston, South Carolina.