The family of a Black man gunned down by San Bernardino police are demanding the officers involved be charged for shooting him in the back as he ran away.
San Bernardino cops have asked their community to withhold judgment after security footage circulated of officers fatally shooting 23-year-old Robert Adams, claiming the video “fails to provide any details or context as to what occurred in the incident.”
For Adams’ family, however, the video tells the whole story: An officer opened fire on Adams as he ran the opposite direction, never firing a shot of his own.
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“It is unbelievable that another Black family has to bury their child due to police shooting first and asking questions later,” Ben Crump, the family’s attorney, said in an emailed statement Tuesday.
Crump later tweeted that Adams didn’t realize the unmarked car had police inside, calling his death a “horrific execution.”
The shocking video, which began circulating this week despite the shooting happening on Saturday, shows an unmarked car driving slowly through a parking lot. Adams—who was working as a security guard and pacing around the lot—saunters toward the car with a handgun in his right hand. About 15 seconds later, two officers jump out of the vehicle with guns drawn.
Adams is seen immediately running off in the opposite direction. The video never shows him point his handgun at the pursuing officers, but he appears to be shot less than five seconds after the cops hopped out of the vehicle—his arms flailing in the air before he collapses onto the asphalt between two cars.
San Bernardino police have since claimed the nearly two-minute clip doesn’t paint the whole picture of what happened, despite confirming an officer fired at Adams without the 23-year-old pulling the trigger of his gun.
“We are aware of a surveillance video clip circulating online that fails to provide any details or context as to what occurred during the incident,” the department said in a statement.
Chief Darren Goodman added a statement of his own: “We are asking the community to please withhold their judgment on the situation until they have all the available facts and details.”
San Bernardino police have not said whether the cops involved have been suspended or placed on administrative leave. The department did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request Tuesday for further details on the shooting.
The cops involved were fully uniformed during the incident, authorities said, and were sent to the parking lot to investigate an illegal gambling business at the property around 8 p.m. Saturday.
Authorities say the officers involved gave Adams first aid until first responders rushed him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Adams’ family confirmed he was working at the gambling site as a security guard and had been carrying a gun after a string of robberies, CBS News and KTLA reported.
“I could understand if he was a threat to them,” Adams’ mother Tamika Deavila King told CBS. “But he was not a threat to them. He was running for his life.”
Adams’ stepfather Audwin King told CBS he wants to see the officer who fired the fatal shots charged with murder.
“The boy ran,” said King. “[The officer] hunted him down like a dog. If [Adams] still had some life in him, the [the officer] probably would've finished the clip. So, when do we have justice for that?”
The handgun police say Robert Adams was holding when he was shot by an officer of the San Bernardino Police Department.
San Bernardino Police DepartmentPolice say they plan on releasing further details and video from the incident. The department has already released a photo with Adams carrying a handgun, which it says had a “bullet in the chamber.”
That explanation isn’t good enough for King, however.
“We want justice. We want his badge. We want his job,” the grieving stepfather said. “We want murder charges.”
