WASHINGTON (AP) – District of Columbia officials have released footage from a body-worn camera showing the moments after a motorcyclist was fatally shot by a city police officer. The city also plans to release the name of the officer involved.
The shooting death of 31-year-old Terrence Sterling has prompted some protests. Sterling, who was black, was fatally shot early on the morning of Sept. 11 after police say he rammed the passenger-side door of a police car while trying to flee a traffic stop.
Police have said the only officer on the scene equipped with a body-worn camera did not turn it on until after the shooting.
Mayor Muriel Bowser says dispatchers will remind officers to turn on their cameras when relaying emergency call information and officers must acknowledge the reminder.
In the last month Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham says officers activated cameras 55,000 times, but officials identified 10 times when officers didn’t activate cameras when they should have.
Kevin Donahue, the city’s deputy mayor for public safety, said Sterling’s family was shown that footage before it was released to the public.