Body cam footage, 911 tapes in Wallace killing to be released
PHILADELPHIA
—The police commissioner in Philadelphia said Wednesday that her department will release 911 tapes and footage f rom police body cameras “in the near future” in the shooting death of Black man following two nights of protests that set off clashes with police and break-ins of stores on the other side of the city.
The death of Walter Wallace Jr ., who was fat ally 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 officials 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 officials would release t he body cam footage and 911 tapes after talking with Wallace's family members. She al so said t he 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 officers were stationed with riot shields. Some of the demonstrators threw debris at officers, according to police.
Business owners were cleaning up damage and boarding up windows a nd 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 clash es 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 officers 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 officers 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.