Civil rights probe opened after teen is shot, killed by cops

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has launched a federal civil rights investigation following the police killing of a Black teenager in Washington, D.C.

According to NBC News, U.S. Park Police released two body camera videos on Tuesday from the officers involved purporting to show the circumstances that led to the death of 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin on March 18. The probe was announced after the videos were made public.

The duration of one of the body camera recordings is approximately 37 minutes, while the other is about 29 minutes. There was also a 12-minute explainer from U.S. Park Police contending that the city’s Metropolitan Police Department responded first to a suspicious SUV running with a sleeping driver inside. A Park Police officer and a sergeant got involved, they said, after Washington police discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen.

Attorney Andrew O. Clarke (left) and Terra Martin (right) attend a news conference Wednesday to discuss a U.S. Park Police officer’s killing of Dalaneo Martin, Terra Martin’s son, on March 18. (Photo: Screenshot/YouTube.com/WUSA9 News)

In one video, officers from both agencies consider aloud how to approach the car without rousing the driver or endangering themselves. A Washington police officer urges Park Police not to enter the vehicle.

A USPP officer opens the rear driver’s side door, one of the body camera recordings shows, and there are shouts of “Police! Don’t move!”

There is also body cam footage of what appears to be a struggle with the SUV’s driver, who picks up speed while the other officer is in the backseat behind him. That officer threatens to shoot the driver if he is not let out of the vehicle.

“The USPP officer inside the car gave verbal commands for the driver to stop,” Park Police said in its initial statement, NBC reported. “The USPP officer discharged their firearm” after the driver failed to comply — and before the sound of a thunderous smash, the result of the SUV crashing into a nearby house, said officials.

The conditions of the two unnamed USPP officers, currently on paid administrative leave, were not revealed after they were taken to a hospital for treatment. Their 12-minute explainer video showed police treating Martin, the SUV’s driver, before emergency medical personnel showed up. 

Park Police claimed they retrieved a firearm from the vehicle.

Martin’s mother, Terra Martin, said she spoke to the medical examiner, who relayed that her son died immediately from six gunshots. During a news conference Wednesday, she demanded the immediate release of the identity of the officer who fatally shot her son and criminal charges against everyone involved.

“I want him arrested. I want him to stop getting paid while he murdered my son and is still home with his family,” Terra Martin said, according to NBC. “Time and time again, I sit and I try to get my head wrapped around this, and I can’t. I don’t sleep. I don’t eat. And justice needs to be served.”

The grieving mother said no amount of justice would make her feel whole from losing Dalaneo, the father of a son himself and the fifth of her 10 children.

Andrew O. Clarke, the lawyer for Martin’s family, referenced George Floyd and Breonna Taylor as he questioned how long the Black community would have to put up with the disparate treatment from police. He vowed to get justice for the Martin family “with or without the help of the federal government or the District of Columbia.”

“Dalaneo did not have to die,” Clarke said during Wednesday’s news conference, NBC reported. “How long will they be able to hide behind their badge to justify taking a life? How long will we as a community have to continue to have the talk with our young Black children because they are treated differently by police?”

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