Three police officers in Austin, Texas, are on administrative leave after fatally shooting a Black man they claim had a gun.
The family of Anthony Franklin, 30, believe he posed no threat when he was shot in the back while crouched in the fetal position.
“The video makes it absolutely clear. Anthony Franklin was on the ground crouched in the fetal position when these officers opened fire,” Franklin’s family’s attorneys Harry Daniels and Nathaniel Mack III said in a statement on Friday.
Anthony Franklin, 30, died on Jan. 15 in downtown Austin after reports of a man with a gun prompted a 911 call to police.
Around 11:30 that night, an unidentified man can be heard on 911 audio released by the Austin Police Department saying, “there’s a guy going around shooting people” as the dispatcher worked to locate the shooting victim.
“I hear three shots fired,” the caller says to the dispatcher.
Emergency sirens can be heard in the audio background as frantic 911 callers call for help.
About five minutes later, officers arrived to the frantic scene the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Police found the unidentified man who had been shot with non-life-threatening injuries. He was later transported to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the shooter was described as “thin, standing about 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-2 with “afro-style hair” and wearing dark clothing.” About 15 minutes after the first 911 calls were made, police probing the area found Franklin who matched the shooter’s description.
In released body camera video by Austin police which only lasts a little more than a minute shows the final moments leading up to the fatal shooting.
The officers, later identified as Kelby Radford, Ryan’s Rawlins and Jacob Bowman can be heard yelling, “gun, gun!”
Police say they ordered Franklin to drop the gun, but “Franklin did not comply with the…
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