The Fresno Police Department on Wednesday released body camera footage of police officers fatally shooting Dylan Noble in that California city on June 25.
Police Chief Jerry Dyer said they released the video to show the public what led officers to open fire on the unarmed 19-year-old.
Speaking at a news conference, Dyer also said that no decision has been made yet on whether the shooting was justified and that the incident is still under investigation.
The graphic body camera footage begins after the officers receive a report of a shooting. The video shows the officers attempt to pull over Noble’s speeding truck and then follow him into the parking lot of a Chevron gas station.
With their guns drawn, the officers tell Noble to show his hands, but he appears to ignore their demands. After climbing out of the truck, Noble walks around while swinging one hand at his side and behind his back. He can be heard yelling, “I f***ing hate my life,” as he moves toward the police with that one arm still behind his back. The officers give repeated warnings, and then, one officer fires two shots at him.
Noble falls to the ground and rolls onto his back. Despite additional warnings, he appears to reach into his shirt and is shot by officers two more times.
Investigators later learned that the object in Noble’s hand was a 4-inch plastic container holding malleable clay, the Los Angeles Times reported.
WARNING: This video filmed by a police officer’s body camera is graphic.
Cell phone video footage had emerged last week showing police officers shooting the teen. The Fresno Police Department said that the officers at the time believed Noble possessed a firearm.
The 26-second clip that the Fresno Bee published last week shows the two cops yelling orders at Noble ― including “Keep your hands up!” ― as he’s laying on the ground next to his pickup truck. As the body camera footage shows, this was after the initial shots were fired.
One of the officers fires a shot after Noble appears to lift at least one arm. Seconds later, a third cop with his gun drawn moves closer to the teen and an officer fires another shot. The footage shows Noble’s arms and legs moving, before the clip ends.
WARNING: The clip of the shooting below is graphic.
Several investigations of the shooting are underway, including initiatives launched by the FBI, the Fresno County District Attorney, the police department and the city’s Office of Independent Review.
The entire shooting incident lasted for two minutes and 20 seconds, according to the Fresno Bee.
Last week, Dyer told the LA Times that in the moments before the cellphone clip, Noble had raised his shirt with his left hand and reached into his waistband with his right hand. He said officers had warned Noble to stop before they fired again.
He also told local news station KCEE that he believed the officers involved reacted appropriately. Officials had said last week that the full body cam video wouldn’t be released until investigations were complete.
“There is going to be questions,” Dyer told the Bee. “It’s an unfortunate tragedy that occurred in this city.”
Before the shooting took place, Fresno police officers were responding to a report of a man walking with a rifle, KABC reported. While searching for a suspect, the officers spotted Noble’s speeding truck and attempted to pull him over, leading to a chase that lasted half a mile.
Noble refused to show his hands when they approached him at the gas station, Fresno police said in a statement. He made a “conscious effort to conceal one hand behind his back, then in his waistband, as he exited the truck, and walked away from officers,” according to the statement.
Dyer earlier told the Fresno Bee that the officers believed Noble was armed because he ignored their repeated commands to show both of his hands. Noble went on to place his right hand behind his back while walking “toward the officers rapidly,” Dyer added.
“When he gets within about 12 feet of the officers, he makes the statement ‘I hate my effing life,’” Dyer told local news station KFSN. “And then he quickly starts to pull his hand out when the officer fires two rounds and shoots him.”
One officer fired three rounds from his service handgun and a second officer fired one round from his shotgun, the Bee reported.
Noble’s parents, Victoria Nelson and Darren Noble, called for an outside investigation into their son’s death during a news conference in northwest Fresno last week. They described Noble as a “peacemaker” who worked for a roofing and insulation company, but had aspirations of becoming a youth counselor.
Noble’s father told the Guardian that their attorneys are investigating the case, as they plan to sue the police department. They couldn’t understand why police approached his son with their guns drawn, he added.
“I’m sure he was scared,” he told the Guardian. “You can see he was still alive. He was trying to comply and they’re still yelling at him. You can see his hands in the video. They shot him more times just to kill him.”
Charles “Sid” Heal, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s commander, told the LA Times that it is odd that this officer-involved shooting lasted longer than two minutes.
“That would be highly unusual. It’s usually no more than five to 20 seconds between the first and last shot,” Heal told the LA Times. Once the first shots brought Noble to the ground, the officers would have had to reassess the threat their suspect posed, he said.
“Why didn’t officers move in after the third shot and restrain him? Fourteen seconds is a long time to wait,” Heal added.
The cellphone video of Noble’s final moments was released on the same day that a woman in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, recorded a Facebook Live video of Philando Castile bleeding in a car after being shot by a police officer. Castile died shortly after being taken to the hospital.
All of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Noble are either on administrative or personal leave. The Fresno Police Department said it’s not releasing their names yet because the officers have received threats.
This story has been updated with the release of the police body camera footage.
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