A black teenager whose death sparked an outcry in his Colorado hometown was running from police officers when he was shot four times, according to body camera footage and an autopsy report released Thursday.
The bodycam footage from the Colorado Springs Police Department shows De'Von Bailey, 19, running from two officers who were questioning him and another man about a reported robbery before being shot three times in the back and once in the back of his arm.
Colorado Springs police did not release a statement on Thursday.
In the graphic video footage from one of the officer's body-warn cameras, Bailey is seen with another individual, identified by CPR News in Colorado as his 19-year-old cousin, Lawrence Stoker.
19-year-old De'Von Bailey was fatally shot by police in Colorado Springs on August 3. Bailey's family said that they remember him as having "bright eyes" and a "bright future." (Photo: The Bailey Family)
As one officer questions the teens, Bailey can be seen briefly touching his pocket before the officer tells him to keep his hands away from his pockets. He moves his hands away, making sure they're in view, and appears to exchange words with the officer before both teens put their hands in the air.
The first officer tells the two that the police are going to check and see if either of them have a weapon. Shortly after, a second officer can be seen approaching them from behind. As he does, Bailey turns his head briefly to the left before running away.
The first officer chases Bailey, shouting at him to keep his hands up before firing his gun. Eight gunshots can be heard in the video. Police officials said that both Sgt. Alan Van't Land and Officer Blake Evanson fired their weapons, CPR reported.
Bailey quickly falls to the ground, while the first officer yells "get your hands up" multiple times. The same officer then tells him to "get down on the ground," taking Bailey's arm as he lies nearly face-down in the street. Blood can be seen coming from his gunshot wounds.
The Colorado Springs Police Department released a sequence of three photos from body camera video from a confrontation between officers and De'Von Bailey on Aug. 3. (Photo: Colorado Springs Police Department via AP)
The officers then handcuff Bailey. An object can be seen between his legs, which the officers believe to be a gun. They cut off his shorts to retrieve it.
It remained unclear on Thursday if the object was a gun.
Police said they were on the scene to respond to a robbery threat around 6:45 p.m. In the bodycam footage, one officer can be heard asking Bailey if he goes by the nickname "Spazz," the alleged name of the suspected robber.
"No, sir," Bailey said.
According to the coroner's report, Bailey was pronounced dead by 7:20 p.m.
The bullets that hit Bailey perforated his heart, left lung and diaphragm, in addition to penetrating his spleen, triggering massive blood loss that lead to his death, according to the coroner's report.
Darold Killmer, one of the family's attorneys, said the video's release made for a "crushingly difficult" day for the family.
"The video shows that there was no evidence to support that anybody was imminently at risk of being killed or harmed," Killmer told CPR.
"The video shows that he was doing everything within his power in the six or eight or 10 steps that he could take to get away to, in fact, get away.... He did not have a weapon in his hand and had not shown any weapon when he was shot in the back."
The victim reported that hed been approached by two African-American males, and one was holding a gun that he described as a Glock 23. One asked, Whats in your pockets? When the victim responded nothing, he said one of the assailants started hitting him and he fell to the ground. The men took the victims wallet and some money.
The victim described the suspects and said, I kind of have history with them, so I know where they live. He described them as two black males. One was skinny with a mustache and a light afro and went by the nickname Spazz.
The victim told the dispatcher the second suspects name was Lawrence and he was kind of overweight. He said both claimed to have guns but only Spazz showed a weapon during the robbery.
"He did not have a weapon in his hand and had not shown any weapon when he was shot in the back."
In other stories you constantly bitch about "But he was unarmed". Now we have a case here where he WAS armed, and you whine, "But he didn't have it in his hand".
What's next? Yeah, he had it in his hand but he didn't shoot? Or "Yeah he shot but he didn't hit anybody?
If this was a 16 year old by the name of DAVID... in small town Nebraska, he would have been functional enough to interact with Law Enforcement... and live another day. When youre born DEVON, from the jungles of the inner city... you dont know how to interact with the Po-Po... and100 years of your fellow ghetto thugs, running from, attacking and shooting the Po-Po... get you shot.
Only urban jungle apes and Paultards are that fucking stupid.
Well I don't know about that.
Their mamas know they'll never amount to anything. And if they ever get any money, they ain't gonna be giving it to mama.
So she tells them to get a gun (to defend themselves). To resist arrest. To punch the cops. To run away.
Then when the cops shoot and kill their son, they get a lawyer, go on social media and TV, and cry, cry, cry about their son (Day-von, Dee-shawn, they can't remember) who was turning his life around.
Then they settle for $2.5 million from the city. That's the only way he's going to support his family.