New Video Seems to Show Cop Shooting Man in Back

Footage contradicts what Fort Worth PD said after July shooting of David Collie: attorney
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2016 9:30 AM CST
New Video Seems to Show Cop Shooting Man in Back
Screenshot from video appears to show Collie walking away from the officers when he was shot.   (YouTube)

A black Texas man was shot over the summer and paralyzed during an incident with two police officers, and a newly released dashcam video appears to show one of the cops shooting him in the back as he was walking away from them, CNN reports. Attorney Nate Washington posted the clip on Facebook Tuesday, saying it proved David Collie hadn't been a threat to the cops, who were working an off-duty security job during the July 27 incident. The Fort Worth Police Department said after the shooting that Collie, 33, didn't listen to orders to stop moving and that a Fort Worth officer saw a "silver object" in his hand he believed was a gun being pointed at the Tarrant County Sheriff's deputy working with him (the object was a box cutter). The police also said Collie was misidentified as one of two armed suspects in a nearby robbery. The video shows the man IDed as Collie ambling along in the dark at an apartment complex when the two officers pull up.

Within seconds after the cops exit the car, Collie, seen walking away from their vehicle, can be seen lifting his arm as if pointing (Washington tells the Washington Post Collie was pointing toward his girlfriend's apartment), and the Fort Worth officer fires one shot. Aggravated assault charges were filed against Collie, but a grand jury didn't indict him for them. "Mr. Collie did not commit a crime," Washington says, per CNN. "It's a crime to falsify police reports to say that someone lunged at you, or pointed a weapon at you. It's a crime to shoot someone in the back from 34 feet away." The Fort Worth PD posted a statement on Twitter Tuesday appearing to reference the footage: "We saw what you saw. We heard what you heard. ... WE DO HEAR YOU!" CBS News notes the video comes on the tail of another recent incident involving the Fort Worth PD, in which cellphone video showed a white officer forcing a black woman to the ground and arresting her and her two daughters after she'd called cops for help with a fight. (More police shooting stories.)

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