Body camera videos released Tuesday show a 21-year-old man moving in a parked car just before police shot him dead outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Maryland.
At a media briefing, Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones shared a 28-minute compilation of bodycam video clips and a recorded phone call between police and driver Ryan LeRoux prior to the July 16 shooting in Gaithersburg. However, the boss did not comment on whether the Friday night shooting was justified.
The public prosecutor’s office in a neighboring district is investigating.
Jones, who didn’t answer questions from reporters, said police found a gun from LeRoux’s lap after four officers opened fire on him. The chief didn’t say whether investigators believe LeRoux raised a gun or posed a threat to police during a roughly 30-minute stalemate.
Jones showed segments of video capturing the shooting from the perspective of an officer’s body camera and a body camera that officers placed in a drive-through window closer to LeRoux’s sport utility vehicle.
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“Your cameras are not a substitute for the human eye and what officers saw that evening,” said Jones.
An officer responded to an unauthorized call that LeRoux had ordered food, refused to pay for it and police said he would not move his SUV out of the drive-through lane. The officer immediately reported by radio that he had seen a gun in the passenger seat and repeatedly ordered LeRoux at gunpoint to raise his hands and slowly unlock one of his doors with his left hand.
“He’s awake, but he doesn’t listen to my orders,” said the officer over his radio. “He’s got his cell phone in hand. The gun is on the passenger seat.
Police officers, who took cover behind a sign, approached the LeRoux SUV and placed “stopping sticks” in front of the vehicle. Police placed the camera in the drive-through window to get a better view of the gun in his car, Jones said.
A woman at the police emergency center spoke to LeRoux on his cell phone. LeRoux said he saw the officers and compiled their orders to raise their hands.
“I can hear her well,” he said.
“We’re just trying to help you here,” the woman said to LeRoux, and asked him to put his hands out the window.
Jones said the officers did not raise LeRoux’s hands or see out the window.
A police sergeant later called LeRoux.
“What’s up, man?” asked the sergeant. “Hello? He just hung up.”
The video from the drive-thru window shows LeRoux straightening up from a reclined position just before gunfire broke out and the window smashed.
“He’s up!” shouted at least two officers just before the shooting.
A crisis negotiator was on his way to the scene but didn’t arrive before the shooting, Jones said.
Leroux died in a hospital. According to the boss, a loaded Glock 47 was recovered at the crime scene.
The four officers involved in the incident were given leave, a standard procedure after a shootout. All four officers are white and LeRoux was black, said police spokeswoman Shiera Goff.
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The Howard County State Attorney’s Office will look into the case under an agreement with its counterpart in neighboring Montgomery County.
The Silver Spring Justice Coalition said in a statement that it planned to hold a press conference with LeRoux’s family in a park in Gaithersburg on Tuesday. Police showed LeRoux’s father Paul, who said the video did not show his son picking up the gun or pointing it at the police, the coalition said.
“The chief of police said that he, too, was unable to confirm that Ryan was holding a gun and / or pointing it at officers, so the chief of police has admitted that he cannot explain why Ryan was shot multiple times “said the coalition statement.
