Houston police release videos from deadly shooting

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>Officials in Houston released video Thursday showing police officers shooting a black man who police said had been holding a gun while standing in a street.

>The footage from the July 9 incident included the recording from a convenience store surveillance camera that shows Alva Braziel, 38, in the distance. The video is dark and it's difficult to see clearly what Braziel has in his hand and what happened in the moments before officers fired.

>The surveillance video showed Braziel falling to the ground 10 seconds after a police vehicle pulls up. The officers thought Braziel was flagging them down for assistance and only realized he was armed when they flashed a light on him, authorities said.

>That recording is followed by the body-cam videos from the two responding officers, which shows only the aftermath of the shooting: The front of Braziel's white shirt is bloodstained, and an officer removed a handgun from his right hand.


>Officers must activate the body cameras themselves. The officers followed department policy when they didn't immediately activate their cameras because they needed to first confront the danger that Braziel posed, the acting police chief, Martha Montalvo, said in a statement later Thursday.

>"The two officers viewed the threat to themselves and the public as immediate, stopped their patrol vehicle and exited the vehicle even before it was in park," Montalvo said. "Once the threat was contained, officers activated their cameras."

>The officers' squad car was not equipped with a dashcam recorder, according to police spokesman Kese Smith.

>Audio from the patrolmen's body cameras recorded them telling responding officers that Braziel waved the weapon before pointing it at them.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/730c956a50c54660805a162f1c219cf2/houston-mayor-release-police-shooting-video-footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mZQgdlWjwk