(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Park Police released video on Tuesday showing the moment one of its officers shot and killed a teenager last month in Washington, D.C.
The incident occurred on the morning of March 18. An officer with the Metropolitan Police Department was responding to a call at approximately 8:51 a.m. ET about a suspicious vehicle parked at 34th Street and Baker Street NE. Upon arrival, the officer found the car with the engine running and the driver — identified as 17-year-old D.C. resident Dalaneo Martin — apparently asleep inside, according to separate press releases from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police.
After determining the vehicle was stolen, the officer called for backup. Additional Metropolitan Police Department officers as well as two U.S. Park Police officers arrived on scene to assist, police said.
Footage from the officers’ body cameras, released by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police, show them attempting to remove Martin from the car at approximately 9:30 a.m. ET. The videos show an officer cutting plastic that was in place of the right backseat window and unlocking the door. The two U.S. Park Police officers then enter the vehicle from the backseat doors and grab Martin by his hands while shouting, “Police! Don’t move!”
Martin awakes and a brief struggle ensues, the video shows. Martin drives the car away with one of the U.S. Park Police officers inside while the other falls out onto the street, the videos show. Body camera footage from the officer still in the backseat shows Martin pulling his hands away and placing them on the steering wheel while continuing to drive. The officer shouts at him from the backseat to “stop” while Martin yells back, “Get off of me!”
“Stop, man, just let me out,” the officer says in the video while pulling out his firearm. “Let me go!”
Martin keeps driving, the footage shows.
With his gun drawn, the officer then shouts: “Stop! Stop or I’ll shoot!”
About a second later, the officer is seen in the video firing his weapon multiple times, with the bullets appearing to strike Martin in the back. The vehicle then crashes into a house on 36th Street NE.
Another video shows both U.S. Park Police officers rendering aid to Martin, who is seen lying on the grass next to the car after the crash.
Medics arrived and pronounced Martin dead at the scene, according to police.
No one inside the home was injured from the crash. A handgun was recovered from inside the vehicle, police said.
The two U.S. Park Police officers involved in the incident were taken to a local hospital for treatment. The one who fell out of the car did not sustain any life-threatening injuries, officials said. Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the Metropolitan Police Department conducts an investigation into the incident, according to police.
A Maryland-based law firm representing Martin’s family has called for “a full investigation.”
“Dalaneo Martin was just 17 years old when he was brutally murdered at the hands of a Park Police Officer, leaving a five-month old child without a father,” the law firm said in a statement to D.C. ABC affiliate WJLA. “We are calling for a full investigation of the officers involved in this shooting. These officers need to be held accountable for taking another black child from our community.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.