Body cam, 911 tapes in Walter Wallace killing to be released
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The police commissioner in Philadelphia said Wednesday that her department will release 911 tapes and footage from police body cameras “in the near future” in the shooting death of a Black man following two nights of protests that set o clashes with police and break-ins of stores on the other side of the city.
The death of Walter Wallace Jr., who was fatally shot by police Monday after authorities say he ignored orders to drop a knife, came amid already heightened tensions in the battleground state just days before the election.
City o cials announced Wednesday they would enact a curfew in the city from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m.
Mayor Jim Kenney told reporters the Pennsylvania National Guard would also be deployed to help protect property and assist the police. The first troops were expected Friday and Saturday.
Kenney, a Democrat, said 23 officers were treated and released for injuries, often bruises, after objects were thrown at them during Tuesday’s clashes.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said o cials would release the body cam footage and 911 tapes after talking with Wallace’s family members. She also said the police department should move “as soon as possible” to integrate with mental health services.
Outlaw said the police department was caught off guard by looting in the city’s Port Richmond neighborhood, far from the protests near the shooting scene in West Philadelphia.
The clashes erupted after about 500 people gathered in a West Philadelphia park Tuesday evening, marching to the nearby police headquarters where o cers were stationed with riot shields. Some of the demonstrators threw debris at o cers, according to police.
Business owners were cleaning up damage and boarding up windows and doors Wednesday after video showed people streaming into stores and stealing goods on the opposite side of the city from where Wallace was shot.
The clashes come as Pennsylvania emerges as a key focus of the contentious 2020 election, with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, a native son, locked in a battle for the state’s 20 electoral votes. Both candidates have made frequent campaign stops in the state.
More than 9 million Pennsylvanians
have registered to vote, and many in Philadelphia waited in line for hours this week to request a mail-in ballot by Tuesday’s deadline, as news of the police shooting spread.
The unrest started Monday evening, shortly after Wallace, 27, was killed, and set off protests elsewhere, including in Washington, D.C., the Brooklyn borough of New York City and Portland, Oregon, where demonstrators held their hands in the shape of a “W” in his honor.
Police said Wallace was wielding a knife and ignored orders to drop the weapon before o cers fired shots Monday afternoon. But his family’s lawyer said the family had called for an ambulance to get him help with a mental health crisis. His parents said Tuesday that o cers knew their son was in a mental health crisis because they had been to the family’s house three times on Monday.
Wallace’s wife, Dominique, is pregnant and was scheduled to be induced Wednesday, according to the family’s attorney, Shaka Johnson. Johnson said Wallace had nine children, two of whom briefly spoke at a news conference late Tuesday, along with Wallace’s mother and father.
“When you come to a scene where somebody is in a mental crisis, and the only tool you have to deal with it is a gun ... where are the proper tools for the job?” Johnson said, arguing that Philadelphia police o cers are not properly trained to handle mental health crises. Johnson said Wallace’s brother had called 911 to request medical assistance and an ambulance.
Police o cials said they could not confirm what information had been given to the responding o cers, whether they were told about a possible mental illness or how many calls they had received for help at Wallace’s address Monday. Chief Police Inspector Frank Vanore confirmed that police had received a call before the fatal encounter Monday about a man screaming and saying that he was armed with a knife.
Outlaw said earlier the o cers involved in the shooting were taken o street duty as they investigate. Outlaw said the o cers’ names and other identifying information, including their race, would be withheld until the department could be sure releasing the information would not pose a threat to their safety.
Neither had a Taser or similar device at the time of the shooting, Outlaw said, noting the department had previously asked for funding to equip more officers with those devices.