The family of Jawan Dallas is calling on an Alabama police department to release the body camera footage in a fatal police interaction that took Dallas’ life. An attorney for the family demands to know why the cops even approached the man in the first place.
What The Cops Say
In their initial report, the Mobile Police Department claimed the responding officers were investigating the report of a burglary in a mobile home community in Theodore, Ala. on July 2. The description of the suspect is that of a Black homeless man wearing red pants headed to Lot 27, per Alabama Political Reporter. In that lot, the cops found Dallas and his friend sitting in a car and demanded to see Dallas’ identification, an order he refused (which is legal in the state of Alabama).
Police claim he then tried to flee the scene leading to a scuffle in which the cops deployed the taser on him twice. They said Dallas notified the cops of his asthma but it wasn’t until 20 minutes later when he began experiencing a “medical emergency” that he was transported by EMS to the hospital where he died.
What Doesn’t Add Up
Attorneys Harry Daniels, Ben Crump, Lee Merritt and John Burris viewed the body camera footage of the incident last week with the Dallas family, per WKRG. In the 45-minute video, Daniels said Dallas was just a bystander and the police had no reason to even approach him.
“He did nothing wrong in the first place for the police to even engage him. Let’s not lose sight of what it is. An innocent citizen who had nothing to do with anything was killed by the Mobile City Mobile Police Department,” Daniels told The Root.
Source: Lawyer: Black Man Killed by Alabama Police Was an Innocent Bystander
