Family of slain black man calls for release of video
Mother of Ugandan refugee fatally shot in California questions actions of police
EL CAJON, CALIF.— An unarmed black man fatally shot by an officer in a San Diego suburb was unjustly killed, and the police department and chief prosecutor are trying to sway public opinion by only releasing a single, favourable frame from video of the shooting, representatives of the man’s family said Thursday in demanding the full video be shown.
After two nights of angry protests in El Cajon, Calif., where the shooting occurred Tuesday afternoon, Alfred Olango’s family gathered with lawyers and religious leaders and urged people to continue demonstrating but implored them to do it peacefully to honour his memory.
Olango’s anguished mother said her son was a good, joyful man who suffered a “mental breakdown” over the recent death of his friend and needed compassion when police encountered him. Pamela Benge said her family had escaped war-torn Uganda to come to the U.S. for safety and she asked why police didn’t just shock her son with a stun gun or shoot him in the leg. “He needed someone who was going to calm him down and then take care of the situation,” she said, her voice thick with emotion and dark glasses covering her eyes. “Not to come and just finish his life.”
Olango’s sister had called police three times Tuesday to report that he was sick, “not acting like himself,” and was walking in traffic. It took officers more than an hour to respond. Once they arrived, the shooting took place within about a minute.
Police released a still frame from a bystander’s video that showed the 38-year-old Olango with his hands together at chest level and pointed at an officer directly in front of him. Police Chief Jeff Davis said Olango refused to obey orders to remove a hand from his pants pocket and was shot after he swiftly drew an object from his front pocket and pointed at the officer in a “shooting stance.”
The object turned out to be a 10centimetre electronic cigarette.
A lawyer representing Olango’s family said at a news conference that authorities were misinforming the public by only showing a single image from the video that supports the El Cajon Police Department’s version of events. “It’s a wonderful way if you’re litigating a case in the media,” attorney Dan Gilleon said.
The El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells said he reached the decision to release the image with the police chief and district attorney to counter reports saying Olango had his hands in the air and was begging not to be shot. Wells said the video footage did not show either of those things.
Olango arrived as a refugee in 1991 and was twice ordered deported because of a 2001 conviction for selling cocaine, U.S. immigration authorities said. But he was released from detention after his native Uganda refused to take him. Immigration authorities took Olango into custody in 2009 after he served nearly four years for a federal firearms conviction in Colorado but were again unable to obtain travel documents.