Recently released video shows Charlotte’s emergency responders took close to a half hour to respond to police after they reported a former HBCU football star was in trauma.
The footage was released only after a court order mandated the city to oblige a petition from the man’s family.
On Thursday, Feb. 2, Charlotte announced the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s (CMPD) release of body-worn camera video of the interaction between its officers, first responders, and Jovontay Avery Williams, 32, in the early morning hours before he died on June 13, 2022.
Williams attended Johnson C. Smith University and played football for the school. He also was invited to try out in 2015 for the Carolina Panthers NFL team, according to the News Maven.
According to the release, officers responded to a 911 call after a woman said she heard shooting going on outside of her home.
“The caller, who was hiding in her closet, stated that someone may be attempting to break into her home,” the city says. “Officers responded to the call for service and located a shell casing and signs of a disturbance at the caller’s residence.”
The footage shows officers at the woman’s doorstep and acknowledging empty bullet casings on her front porch. They are later told that the person they are looking for is on a different house porch further down the road.
Bodycam video shows the officers with their weapons out, but once they approach the house where Williams is, they repeatedly ask him to show them his hands, carefully following a script to make sure he hears them and understands their commands.
Officers located Williams at 2:09 a.m.
According to the release, “Officers observed Williams attempting to break into another home in their presence and used the ‘soft, empty hands’ approach as detailed in CMPD’s response to resistance policy to take him into custody.”
Williams is heard moaning and never complies with the officer’s…
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