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North Carolina authorities released a portion of the body camera footage capturing the aftermath of an off-duty deputy shooting and killing a Black man in the city of Fayetteville earlier this month.
The Fayetteville Police Department on Friday released three clips capturing its officers responding to the scene where off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff's Office Lt. Jeffrey Hash admitted he shot Jason Walker on Jan. 8. Hash, who has since been placed on leave, claimed in a previously released 911 call that Walker had jumped onto his truck, ripped off a windshield wiper and attempted to break the glass.
Amid claims that Hash struck Walker with his truck before shooting, Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins has insisted that a review of the black box technology of the truck, a computer that logs speed, braking, impact and other events, did not record any impact with any person or thing.
Protests have persisted over the shooting in North Carolina city outside Fort Bragg, and Walker’s family has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who secured the record $27 million settlement for the family of George Floyd. Crump descended on Fayetteville Thursday to call for justice.
The first clip of body camera footage begins with a man who identifies himself as Walker’s father.
"He came out the yard and I was trying to get him to come back over there, and I called him, ‘Come back, Jason’," the man, who says he’s Walker’s father, tells the officer, as EMS personnel are seen in the background attending to the man lying on the pavement. "He comes out into the street"
"He was out here in the daggum street, and the fella drove up," the man recalls. "He jumped up on the dash and the guy jumps out and shoots him."
"Did anybody record it or anything like that?" the officer asks. The man replies, "I don’t know about nobody recording the actual shooting, but I can see where he was on the hood right there."
"You can see where he pulled off one of the daggum windshield wipers and hit the windshield," the man explains, pointing toward the front of the red pick-up truck driven by the off-duty deputy.
NC SEES PROTESTS AFTER OFF-DUTY DEPUTY SHOOTS BLACK MAN WHO POLICE SAY JUMPED ON MOVING TRUCK
The officer asks if Walker had any mental health issues, and the man says he does not know. The officer apologized for having to ask, and the man turns to walk away.
A second clip of body-camera video begins with an officer asking a group of people, "who saw it?"
A man, who says he lives across the street, replies, "That fella jumped up on the hood, and he jumped out of his car and shot him." The officer asks for the man’s ID, before turning to view another officer having a conversation with Hash outside of the open driver’s side of the pick-up truck.
Investigators with the NC SBI have assumed the investigation surrounding the shooting that occurred on Jan. 8, 2022, along Bingham Drive. The investigation has revealed the driver of the truck, who shot Jason Walker, was an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy. ((Fayetteville Police Department))
"I was coming down here. He ran across the street, so I stopped," Hash is heard telling the other officer at the scene. "I have my daughter and my child in here."
An officer starts asking others at the scene whether Walker was their family member, and a man’s voice is heard asserting, "That’s my son. That’s my son," before the clip ends.
The third clip of body camera footage begins with an officer walking up to another vehicle parked nearby, as a woman and man are standing in the street.
The woman identified herself as Elizabeth Ricks. The man has since identified himself in social media posts about the incident as Chase Holden Sorell. The two are in a relationship.
"I need an alcohol pad or something to wipe off this blood," Ricks tells the officer, explaining that she is a trauma nurse and was applying pressure to Walker’s wound before EMS arrived.
"I’m a trauma nurse, sorry. I’m just shooken up. This is some of the craziest sh** I’ve seen," she says. The officer asks if she can explain to him what happened.
"He was already on the ground," Ricks says, referring to Walker.
She then refers to Hash, "He was in the truck and came up and I don’t know what exactly happened. I don’t know if he got onto the car or if he was actually hit. I don’t know."
NORTH CAROLINA DEPUTY WHO FATALLY SHOT BLACK MAN WHILE OFF-DUTY IS PLACED ON LEAVE
"But they were in the truck. In the vehicle," the woman continues. "I don’t understand. They were in a big a** car. He didn’t have anything on him or anything like that. This is speculation, I don’t know if he was mentally unwell or anything. And then the guy just started shooting him."
"He says he’s the sheriff," Ricks says. "I didn’t see him pose a threat."
"He was already on the ground when he shot him?" the officer asks.
"Yeah," the woman replies, "It’s like he hit him and then got out and just shot him."
Ricks gives her name, as well as her phone number and home address to the officer in a portion of the clip where the audio is redacted. The officer asks a man if he also saw what happened.
"I just seen a man on the ground when we pulled up," Sorell says. "He said he had ran out in front of him and hit his car… came up on his car, so he shot him. And that’s all I saw."
"Do you know if he was hit by the car?" the officer asks.
Rick replies, "I didn’t fully see it all happen… All I saw is what happened when I rolled down by window. And he said, ‘he ran in front of my car,’ and he said that he was trying to protect his family."
The investigation is being handled by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation.
In releasing the footage Friday, the Fayetteville Police Department said Resident Superior Court Judge Ammons had granted their request to share some video "because transparency is important."
"To protect witnesses' privacy we removed some information from the video like witnesses’ personal information and social security numbers," the police department said in a statement. "The footage released today is only a few minutes long and represents the first videos we submitted to the judge."
"However, the City has filed a petition to have all of the body cam footage released which encompasses about 20 hours of video," the statement continued. "Staff will be working as expeditiously as possible to review that video and submit it for the judge’s consideration."
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Speaking at a church in Fayetteville on Thursday, Crump demanded truth regarding the shooting of Walker, who he described as a single father who left behind a 14-year-old son.
"There are a lot of reasons why Black children have to grow up without their fathers, but this reason is unacceptable," Crump said. "His father was shot unfairly, unjustifiably and unconstitutionally by somebody who’s supposed to protect and serve him."
Hash has not been charged in connection to the incident, and Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West said the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys will take over as an independent prosecutorial agency for the matter to avoid any conflict of interest.
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