Body cam footage showing the police officer-involved shooting death of 19-year-old Kadir Skinner was made public Thursday. The action comes after outcry from Wilmington officials and citizens for transparency.
The Delaware Department of Justice, the City of Wilmington, and Wilmington Police Department released footage from three officers present during the June 24 interaction that led to Skinner’s death.
All three clips start with the officers’ arrival in the Northeast Wilmington neighborhood. In Officer 1’s cam footage, he runs with his gun drawn and fires at Skinner, tackles the teen, and handcuffs him. Multiple times while on the ground, Skinner said “I can’t breathe.” At a minute and forty seconds into the body camera footage of officer 1 asked Skinner "are you hit?" and Skinner replied that he didn't know.
Skinner family lawyers Harry Daniels and Chance Lynch saw the footage a day before it was released to the public. During a press conference Thursday, they said that a June 25th Wilmington Police statement that Skinner pointed a gun at a crowd doesn't match up with the footage.
Daniels said that in the body camera footage, "we didn't see any weapon in Kadir's hand."
And while it's possible that Skinner did have a gun Daniels said, "there is such a thing called the Second Amendment."
Daniels added that in the footage, Skinner appears to be moving away from the officer who shot at him, "I don't know why black men in America are the biggest threat to law enforcement, running away from them," and, "regardless if he had a gun or not, he still was shot in the back by police."
Lynch, who is co-counsel for Daniels, said the body camera footage gets the community and Skinner's family closer to truth and, "now we're asking for accountability."
Daniels and Lynch said they sent the Wilmington City government a $25 million wrongful death claim Thursday. The the family also expects the officer who shot Skinner to face criminal charges.
The investigation into the shooting continues, but DOJ and Wilmington officials said the video was released “as a matter of public interest.”
