Body camera video shows an Orlando police officer gunning down a 26-year-old in downtown.
ORLANDO, Florida. – Multiple body camera videos released Wednesday morning show moments leading up to an Orlando police officer fatally shooting a 26-year-old man in downtown just over a week ago.
The officer shot and killed Derek Diaz, who was in a car near Jefferson Street and Orange Avenue.
According to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith, officers actively patrolled the area, calling it a hotbed of criminal activity and believing that Diaz was involved in the drug business. Police said Diaz disobeyed the officers’ orders and one of them shot him because he made a “quick move” as if he wanted to get a firearm. Diaz was declared dead in the hospital.
Body camera footage of the officer who fired the gun shows him approaching the car Diaz was in, along with two other officers.
The officer asks Diaz to turn off the car. He is seen holding his phone and another object before an officer asks him to put both hands on the steering wheel.
“Bad, bad,” Diaz says in the video, placing his hands on the steering wheel.
“Don’t move,” the policeman can be heard in the video saying after.
The video shows the officer opening the door and telling Diaz to put his hands back on the steering wheel. The video shows Diaz raising one hand in the air, opening the car’s center console.
“Hands on the steering wheel, hands on the steering wheel,” an officer yells before shots are fired in the video.
The officers move away from the car.
Did you guys shoot? In the video, one officer can be heard asking.
“Yes, I did,” another officer said.
The video shows officers then returning to the car to get him out of the car and begin CPR.
No weapons were found in the car, but police said drugs were found during the investigation.
Smith released a statement about the release of the bodycam video, saying in part: “We understand the need for answers. Maintaining the integrity of the investigative process is also essential so that the facts are presented honestly and transparently. The investigation includes not only video recording of the incident on a body camera, but also the collection of testimonies, evidence and other materials.
The Diaz family and their lawyers Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson are calling for body camera footage of the shooting to be made public.
“I never understand why, when taxpayers are paying all this money for body camera videos at this very moment – at this very moment to be able to see what happened – why the police come up with so many excuses and why we accept them. when we all know that the main goal of our body camera videos is transparency,” Crump said at a press conference on Saturday.
Sonia Nava, the mother of Diaz’s daughter, told News 6 that the entire family is heartbroken and still in the dark.
“All we know is what we saw on the news. They didn’t say anything. We don’t know, for example, what happened. We don’t like how many times they shot him. We don’t know where they shot him. We don’t know how he died, like if he suffered. We don’t know anything,” Nava said earlier.
The officer who opened fire is on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Nava said the family has set up GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.
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