** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Police in St. Paul released body camera footage Friday that shows a man was armed with a gun before officers shot and killed him during an early morning confrontation. Officers Matthew Jones and Vincent Adams shot William James Hughes, 43, on an apartment building porch Aug. 5. Hughes’ family has questioned why he had to die. State investigators are still reviewing the incident but Police Chief Todd Axtell took the unusual step of releasing the officers’ bodycam footage before the probe is complete. Axtell said during a news conference before showing the video to reporters that the shooting has generated “widespread rumors and falsehoods” that could erode public trust in police and place officers in danger. The footage shows Jones and Adams enter the enclosed porch and knock on a door. Hughes emerges from another door with a pistol in his right hand. As the officers yell at him to put his hands up, he moves the gun toward the ceiling. The pistol momentarily points toward the officers as he swings it upward and one or both of them open fire. A search warrant application the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension filed this week indicates the incident began when Hughes became angry and fired two or three shots into a wall and then pointed his gun at his roommate’s head. The roommate fled and called police. Hughes was a member of the White Earth Nation, an Ojibwe band based in northern Minnesota.
Relatives told investigators he had been suicidal over a terminal illness that limited his quality of life, according to the warrant application. Axtell said he had watched the footage with Hughes’ family. He held up two envelopes at the news conference saying they contained cards Hughes’ sister asked him to deliver to Adams and Jones. “This is the first time in my 30-year career that I’ve ever seen such grace by a family met by such a tragedy,” Axtell said. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi issued a statement saying the video is hard to watch but is just one piece of evidence in the case. The BCA is relaying information daily and he plans to analyze all the data before deciding whether the shooting was justified, Choi said. John Gordon, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a statement questioning whether officers truly had to fire. “Having a gun, in and of itself, is not reason enough for someone to be shot,” Gordon said. “Officers need extensive training on how to secure an area and de-escalate dangerous situations so that shootings are a last resort, not a routine practice. That, unfortunately, did not happen for William Hughes.” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter issued a statement saying the footage is “heartbreaking” and the city wishes the shooting had never happened.
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** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
Damn that one cop has a hell of a trigger finger
God damnit! My whole clip again!
It then looks like he was raising his hands.
A big difference between keep yer hands up pow pow pow pow and pow pow pow pow keep yer hands up it seems to be…..
I mean when cops show up the last thing you should do is raise a gun to them
" "Having a gun, in and of itself, is not reason enough for someone to be shot," Gordon said."
It's not about merely having a gun, but about standing in front of uniformed police officers with a gun in your hand and failing to drop it when ordered to do so, which seems pretty enough for being shot.
Hands up ! , : puts hands up
Shoot him anyways – American policing
Folded that bastard!
He seriously put his hand up holding the gun 😆🥴
Que when you police when officer stop 2018 me estoy think when you
What are you doing stop police estoy chase officer 2018 you doing
Swiss chessed 🧀
You do not pay attention at all. They said drop it and put your hands up. Not keep it in your mf hand and THEN put your hands up.
Shouldn't they say its the police when they knock on the door? Also shouldn't they say lower your weapon on the ground and put your hands up?
Not sure about the wisdom of telling a man with a gun in his hand to put his hands up – maybe 'drop the gun' might have had a better outcome.
Suicide by cop. Unfortunate, but case closed. (They could have yelled "drop the weapon" instead of "hands up", but it would ended the same way.)
Pigs in America be like: "500 rounds to kill it's in my police training manual"
At least they got fired, right?
Another knock-and-announce fail. Damn the older the vids get, the worse the police seem to get.. :[
Now he has more bullets in his body than neurons
The guy got a gun and came to see who was shining lights in his window wanting to protect his home and when he realized who it was he put his hands up they shot him.
Cops body camara microphone when shooting:woaheoehdurhskgwbwjevrisvejehsjrhejehwkegheuwhehehejebejebbddbjwjwbekrhrkgogokvoghdhsgwfehhe
White privilege, they said.
Honestly I’m coming outside with a gun late at night but it’s tough criminals can say they’re cops when they’re at your door I would be looking for flashing lights outside or whatever the moment I saw it’s cops I would have said don’t shoot and dropped my weapon
Cops: "put your hands up"
Suspect puts hands up
Cops: "popopopopopop"
Goddamn it. I’m out of ammo.
If he survives, he got a new nickname "honeycomb"