Following a judge’s order, police in Gardena, California, have released video footage of an officer fatally shooting an unarmed man in 2013. The dash-cam video shows the officer shouting “Put your hands up!” at three unarmed men. Two men keep their hands up the entire time, while one lowers them several times and removes his hat. The policeman opens fire immediately after he removes his cap. A second man was also wounded. The city settled a lawsuit over the case for $4.7 million, and claimed it settled the suit under the assumption that the video would not be unsealed. The “defendants' argument backfires here — the fact that they spent the city's money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public's interest in seeing the videos,” the judge wrote. “Moreover, while the videos are potentially upsetting and disturbing because of the events they depict, they are not overly gory or graphic in a way that would make them a vehicle for improper purposes.”
