The family of Colorado man fatally shot by police is questioning why it took so long to provide medical help to him as he lay slumped on the ground near a fence.
Newly released body camera and surveillance footage of the Feb. 2 incident that took place earlier this month has audio of someone yelling “Don’t shoot” seconds before an officer opens fire on Stephen Poolson in suburban Denver.
It is difficult to see what Poolson, 41, is doing right before he is shot at an apartment building in Littleton, but his sister, Shannon Wicker, said she believes her brother shouted to stop the officer from shooting.
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“Hearing my brother’s last words ‘Don’t shoot’ has broken me,” she said in a statement to KUSA-TV, which obtained the video footage from her ahead of its public release late Monday. “De-escalation of situation — not escalation — should be the primary focus of police interaction. Police are to preserve life, not destroy it.”
She told the station she released the video because it raises more questions than it answers and she wants to know why it took so long for police to render aid to her brother — about five minutes after the shooting, according to the video.
In their initial account of the shooting, police said Poolson “produced a gun” before he was shot.
In the video, the officer, with his gun still pointed on the wounded Poolson, radios that two other suspects fled into the building’s basement as he asks for more officers to come help him. A dark object can be seen next to the fence a few feet away from Poolson. The officer who shot him points it out as the gun when another officer arrives. The officer who shot him then asks the newly arrived officer to watch Poolson as he leaves to get his medical equipment.
H/T Fox News (read more at FoxNews.com)
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