Source: The Washington Post / Getty
Protests continue in the wake of a police involved shooting that left a 22-year-old Black woman wounded in New Haven, Connecticut on April 16, according to the New Haven Register.
On Tuesday, WSFB obtained the body cam footage from the Hamden Police Department after Black Lives Matter protesters called for its release. The footage comes after a week of protests from Yale students, New Haven residents and surrounding communities.
According to James C. Rovella of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, investigators plan to release the body camera footage soon.
A Yale University officer named Terrance Pollock was also involved in the shooting. Devin Eaton was identified as the officer involved from the Hamden Police Department.
The victim, Stephanie Washington, was struck in the face after officers opened fire while she was sitting in the car next to her boyfriend, Paul Witherspoon. Washington survived her wounds but remains hospitalized, while Witherspoon was not injured. Witherspoon was taken in questioned by authorities, but he was later released.
“I’ve heard gunshots before but it’s a different feeling when somebody’s shooting at you…when the police are shooting at you,” Witherspoon said in an interview with ABC Connecticut.
The involved officers who are both Black, say that Witherspoon’s vehicle fit the description of the car involved in the robbery. Local law enforcement also claimed that Witherspoon refused to respond to officer’s commands and was in possession of a gun. However, no weapons were discovered when they searched the car.
In the surveillance footage you can see the New Haven police officer fire as soon as he pulls up to Witherspoon’s vehicle. A second point of view shows the Yale officer jump out of his article and fire at the vehicle, as he sprints towards the opposite side of the street.
“This incident betrays police activity gone horribly wrong along the Hamden-New Haven line and now Stephanie, as well as many residents, her family, her friends, must live with the consequences and resulting uncertainty of what was by every definition an unacceptable response,” New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said.
