The FBI and federal prosecutors have opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly police shooting of 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin by an officer in Washington, DC, last month after the teen was found sleeping in an allegedly stolen vehicle.
“Th…
The FBI and federal prosecutors have opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly police shooting of 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin by an officer in Washington, DC, last month after the teen was found sleeping in an allegedly stolen vehicle.
“The loss of a life is always tragic but is especially heartbreaking when it involves a child,” the US Attorney’s Office in Washington said in a statement, calling the bodycam video “extremely upsetting.”
The release of the videos comes amid nationwide scrutiny of police use of force, sparked by the release of bodycam footage in several cases where an interaction with police resulted in death or injury, including the fatal February shooting of Alonzo Bagley in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the beating death of Tyre Nichols by officers in Memphis, Tennessee.
Officers from both the Park Police and the Metropolitan Police were responding to a report of a stolen vehicle just before 9 a.m. when the shooting of Martin happened, they said.
“Once you break it, he’s gonna wake up, start it and put it in drive to go. We don’t want nobody to get hurt,” one officer is heard telling another officer in Park Police bodycam footage.
As the officers continue to strategize, an MPD officer can be heard in the bodycam footage saying, “So, here’s the plan. He’s knocked out. The back window is just a plastic. I’m going to try to cut that out quietly, unlock the door. If he doesn’t get startled, doesn’t wake up then we’re going to try to get in there, grab him before he puts that car in gear.”
The officer continues, “If he does take off, just let him go.”
Officers from both agencies eventually approach the vehicle and try to pull the driver out as the footage shows a Park Police officer jump into the backseat and yell, “Police, don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.”
The vehicle then suddenly drives off as the Park Police officer is still in the backseat, the footage shows. The officer yells, “Stop!” The vehicle keeps going and the officer yells, “Stop man, just let me out. Let me go!”
Then the officer then yells, “Stop. Stop or I’ll shoot!”
“The driver did not comply” and the officer “discharged his firearm,” Park Police said.
Seconds later, the vehicle crashes into a house and the officer jumps out, the footage shows.
Officers pulled the driver out of the vehicle, called for medical assistance and began administering aid, including doing chest compressions.
US Park Police said the driver, identified as Martin, died at the scene and a gun was recovered inside the vehicle. No one inside the house was injured.
