5 police officers were recorded by a CCTV camera as they shot dead a blind, mentally ill man. 47-year-old James Hall, who apart from being blind also suffers from schizoaffective disorder, was killed in a convenience store in Fontana, California, and his family has released the CCTV footage of the incident to support a lawsuit which they filed against the Fontana police department.
The police officers had earlier claimed that Hall was armed with a knife and a rock and was coming towards them which was why they shot him, however, this CCTV footage has shown their claims to be false. Contrary to their claims, the footage does not show Hall with any weapons on Nov. 22, 2015, the day he was killed.
Hall’s Family see the death of Hall as an execution and believe the police escalated the situation unnecessarily when they could have handled it better.
Speaking for Hall’s family, Mark Geragos said,‘It’s a disturbing video indictment of the officers. The video puts the lie to the obviously falsified police account of what happened. In fact, this was an execution.”
The lawsuit mentioned 12 officers and said authorities acted ‘in reckless and callous disregard for the constitutional rights’.
This is disheartening. I hope the deceased and his bereaved family gets justice.