Oakland police reveal body cam video of fatal shooting
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- For the first time, the Oakland Police Department is revealing officer body camera video from two recent controversial cases.
The first incident occurred last Wednesday on 27th street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and the second incident happened on 64th Avenue in East Oakland last month.
It's unprecedented for a department that's come under fire from critics claiming the deaths were the result of excessive force. "The video is just one piece of evidence in a very large investigation," Oakland Police Department Police Chief Sean Whent said.
For the first time in their history, Oakland police shared body camera video of two high profile cases with reporters, but didn't release any images to the public. "We believe that doing it in the manner that we've done it will allow us to correct some of the misinformation that's out there, but at the same time preserve the integrity of our investigation," Whent said.
One case involves last week's shooting of Nathaniel Wilks, 28, who was fatally shot while being chased on foot by Oakland police. Police say Wilks was wanted in an armed robbery in July. OPD said there was a car chase and attempted carjacking that ended at the intersection of 27th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Armed robbery suspect shot, killed by Oakland police during chase
The video shows Wilks running away from the officers with what appears to be a gun in his left hand. Police can be heard yelling repeatedly for him to get on the ground and drop the gun, but at one point Wilks turns and runs back toward officers and they open fire. "What I saw did not justify them killing him," Wilks' mother Marcia Yearwood said.
Yearwood saw the same body camera video Tuesday and sees it differently. "The gun was nothing was pointed at them and I just don't feel it was justified," she said.
"Whether he had a gun or not, your goal was just to kill him. Why don't we start talking about shoot to injure instead of shoot to kill. Why don't we start talking about how we can bring people in without murdering them," Oakland activist Cat Brooks said.
A second body camera video shown to reporters involves the case of Richard Linyard who died after a foot chase with police where no shots were fired.
The video shows officers discovering Linyard unresponsive and wedged between two buildings.
John Burris represents Linyard's family, who claims police caused his death. "It's not the media's interpretation that's necessarily important. It's the family's interpretation and they're the ones who need to see it," he said.
Oakland police say they will release the video to the public once they have completed their investigation.
