In what has become a predictable response, community members are accusing Washington, D.C. police of “brutality” after the two police officers shot and killed a man they say they believed was moving for his gun when they approached his car.
The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police released the bodycam footage from the two officers involved in the September 1 fatal shooting of 26-year-old Justin Robinson. The cops were responding to the scene of an accident. It appeared that Robinson had crashed his car into a McDonalds. The WDMP released the footage on September 10 as part of a meeting to explain to the community what happened.
In the video, the two cops approach Robinson’s car. They found him unresponsive initially, but one of the cops saw a gun in the car. One of the officers can be heard saying “we got movement” while another advises Robinson to keep his hand away from the gun.
As the cops walked to the car with their pistols out, one shouts several times to Robinson ordering him to put his hands up. Then an officer puts his gun in the window of the car and threatens to shoot Robinson. Robinson then appears to reach toward his gun, and the officers opened fire, killing him.
The police department says Robinson actually grabbed one of the officers’ guns.
The lawyer for Robinson’s family, Brandon Burrell, justified Robinson’s actions as if his reaching for the cops’ gun was a normal, expected response. He said Robinson “naturally attempted” to move the gun away from his face. That is not, of course, the recommended course of action when a police officer gives a subject a lawful command. But to Burrell, it is an obvious case of “police brutality.”
Burrell claims that Robinson was something called a “violence interrupter” for an organization called Cure the Streets. This is a program out of the Attorney General’s office in D.C. that tries to reduce gun violence.
People on social media reacted predictably to the release of the footage, posting angrily, and using the hashtag #JusticeForJustin. A protest in the city was organized on September 10.
The city police department says it has launched an investigation.
