‘We’ve all been there’: Teen who was shot at by police says he was not resisting
An Arizona teen who was killed by a police officer while in custody says the officer who shot him did not “understand the seriousness” of his actions.
In a video posted to Facebook on Sunday, the 14-year-old said he was standing on a street corner in Phoenix on Sunday when he was approached by two officers who told him to put his hands up.
“The officer who pulled the trigger said, ‘You got a knife,'” the boy said in the video.
“I don’t know why.
I’m a grown man.”
After being shot in the head, the teen, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The police department has not released the officer’s name.
In the video, the boy told police that he had been shot at least 10 times and that the officers were wearing body cameras.
The video is not the first time a high school student has been the victim of police violence.
In March 2016, 18-year old Zachary Walker, a member of the Navajo Nation, was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop.
Walker’s mother told reporters that she had not been given an explanation for why her son was shot by officers, and she also said her son did not resist when officers approached him.
“They didn’t understand why he had a knife and why he was reaching for a weapon,” said her mother, Rachel Walker.
The officer has not been charged in Walker’s death, which occurred during a separate traffic stop, according to Arizona law enforcement officials.
Walker had been released from custody after serving four years in a federal prison for armed robbery and drug trafficking.
He was also convicted of killing a fellow inmate.