Charged with murder, cop who shot black man in his car
Yet another killing by police that has left 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 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 i n 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 on the front of his car.
The footage, released last night, shows the officer asking why Mr DuBose does not have his driver’s l i cence 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 cont r adicts Tensing’s claim i n 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 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 lawyers will argue that he acted in self defence.
US police have been under scrutiny since unarmed black 18-year- old Michael Brown was shot dead by a white former officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last August.
White officers were also involved in the fatal shootings of a 12-year- old boy playing with a toy gun in Cleveland, Ohio, and a black man in North Charleston, South Carolina.