Video shows Southern California police shooting a Black man as he ran away
During Rob Marquise Adams’ death, he was blocked by a building and couldn’t get any further. His mother claims that he had a cell phone, despite police reports that he was armed.
According to officials and video of the incident, a Southern California police officer fatally shot a 23-year-old Black man who was trying to escape.
On Saturday, two uniformed officers in an unmarked car responded to reports of an armed Black man in a business parking lot, San Bernardino Police Chief Darren Goodman said in a video statement on Tuesday.
Rob Marquise Adams, who Goodman identified as Rob Marquise Adams, began walking toward the car when the officers arrived.
Tamika King, the young man’s mother, insisted he was holding a cellphone, not a gun, and spoke to her just before police arrived.
According to King, Adams could be seen celebrating his friend’s new vehicle purchase in the video.
“He just got a new car, they both have twin BMWs,” King told reporters.
“You can see my son dancing because he didn’t know what was going on, he was dancing. And I was on the phone and all I heard after that was gun shots. He never told me goodbye. He never told me goodbye.”
The police’s account of the shooting was disputed by civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
“She heard the gunfire, she heard the shots in rapid succession and then she never heard her son’s voice again,” Crump said.
Police released an edited video capturing the shooting, which shows two men standing in the parking lot. According to Goodman, one of them appears to take what appears to be a handgun out of his waistband.
“The officers exited their vehicle and gave Adams verbal commands, but he immediately ran toward two parked vehicles with the gun in his right hand. Officers briefly chased Adams, but seeing that he had no outlet, they believed he intended to use the vehicles as cover to shoot at them,” he said.
“Fearing that bystanders’ or the officers’ lives were in danger, one of the officers fired his gun, striking Adams.”
In a body camera video released by police, an officer appears to run toward Adams, who is running from the officers but cannot continue because he is blocked by a building. Adams falls to the ground after being shot by the officer.
Watch police shooting a Black man as he ran away
