HOUSTON – The family of the 29-year-old man who was shot and killed by an officer last month is demanding the Houston Police Department release the bodycam video of the shooting.
The demand comes after the family conducted an independent autopsy, which they say showed Jalen Randle was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the neck.
On April 27, Randle, a fugitive who was wanted on three felony warrants, was fatally shot by an officer in east Houston.
When HPD officers were searching for Randle, they said they spotted him getting into the front passenger seat of a vehicle, which then left the area.
The officers attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle but the driver refused to pull over and a short chase started. That chase ended several blocks away in the 8700 block of Josie Street after officers performed a PIT maneuver.
As officers approached Randle’s vehicle, they said he exited the vehicle holding a bag in his hand and started approaching an officer. The officer, in return, fired his weapon, striking Randle once.
In the bag Randle had been holding, police said they found a semi-automatic pistol.
Randle was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Following the shooting, Randle’s family and advocates called the shooting egregious and called for the termination of the officers.
”When you have a warrant, you’re to be arrested, taken to jail, and taken before a judge. The police should not be the arresting agency, the judge, the jury, and the executioner,” said community advocate Quanell X.
On Wednesday, the family said witnesses claimed Randle was running away from the officers when he was shot, not walking toward them as stated in the Houston police reports.
Attorney Ben Crump, who joined the family during the news conference on Wednesday, said the Houston Police Department should release the bodycam video of the incident by May 25, the second death anniversary of George Floyd.
