John Crawford Walmart shooting video controversy

Crime
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Should video of Beavercreek police shooting John Crawford be released?

Ohio’s attorney general says it would be irresponsible to release video surveillance tape of John Crawford III being shot by police at the Beavercreek Walmart last month while the investigation is still under way.

But “release the tape” has become a battle cry of those who say they are seeking justice for the 22-year-old Fairfield resident killed Aug. 5 while carrying a MK-177 BB/pellet rifle made by Crosman that he picked up from a shelf at the Pentagon Boulevard store.

Saying releasing the tape would be “playing with dynamite” that could taint a potential jury pool, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has rejected requests from Crawford’s family and the media for the release of video evidence showing the events that led to the deaths of Crawford and fellow Walmart customer Angela Williams.

The 37-year-old Fairborn resident died after experiencing a health emergency trying to flee the chaos with her 9-year-old daughter.

Click here for Beavercreek Walmart Shooting updates, background.

The Facebook group #Releasethetape was set up shortly after Crawford’s death as a place to “post media related to any events that have taken place in relationship with the #RELEASETHETAPE and #JUSTICEFORJOHNCRAWFORD movements.”

Nationally, a “Tell Walmart: Release the Tapes” petition page has been set up on Color of Change.

“Walmart has video surveillance footage of the events but has refused repeated requests from John Crawford’s family to publicly release the tapes,” the petition says.

The petition to the United States Department of Justice called “Release the Videotape Evidence in the Killing of John Crawford” was set up on Change.org. Another Change.org petition, “Open a federal investigation into the fatal police shooting of John Crawford III. Release video of shooting,” has nearly 14,000 signers.

While some supporters have rallied in support of police, many petitioners say this is both a matter of transparency and police conduct.

“The public has the right to know how evil the very ones who promised to serve and protect them really are,” petition signer Velora Black of San Diego wrote on the Change.org petition directed at the justice department.

Hamilton County attorney Mark Piepmeier will oversee the Sept. 22 special Greene County grand jury deciding if crimes were committed on Aug. 5, and whether charges should be filed in the case.

People from Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President and state Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Cincinnati, to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s civil rights group National Action Network call for the release of the tape.

Crawford was black. The officers involved in his shooting are white.

Read: Walmart shooting draws Sharpton’s attention; activist coming to town

Contact this blogger at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth

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The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has refused to release surveillance video of John Crawford III’s death.

Here is some of what has been reported about the video:

Father says son murdered

The day after the shooting, Beavercreek Police Chief Dennis Evers said that Crawford was shot by Beavercreek police officers Sean Williams and Sgt. David Darkow on Aug. 5 when he failed to obey their commands.

John Crawford Jr., the father of John Crawford III, and his attorneys have been shown a portion of surveillance video of the shooting.

Riverside resident Ronald Ritchie, the only person to make a 911 call that evening, told a dispatcher Crawford was “waving” a rifle at people in the store and appeared to be attempting to “load” it.

Attorney Dennis Mulvihill, a partner with Michael Wright who is representing Crawford’s family, said nothing in the six-minute video the firm has seen “substantiates the 911 caller’s version of the events.”

“In the last four minutes of his life, John Crawford was standing in one spot, in a corner aisle, talking on the phone, facing the shelves,” Mulvihill wrote in an email that Wright shared with the Dayton Daily News. “The BB gun he was intending to buy was being used like a cane, barrel pointed at the floor, while the cell phone was in his other hand — placed up to his ear. Other shoppers who wandered into the camera appeared to be completely unconcerned about John.”

Interviewed by The Guardian newspaper, Crawford Jr. called his son’s death an execution.

“It was flat-out murder. And when you see the footage, it will illustrate that,” he said.

Seemingly changed story

Ronald Ritchie told a reporter for that newspaper that he too has seen footage of the shooting and that the tape backs up his statements.

But his story has seemingly changed.

In an interview with Dayton Daily News and WHIO reporters following the shooting, Ritchie stood by his version of events that led him to call 911, saying Crawford was waving the weapon at children, adults and items.

“He looked kind of serious as far as he didn’t really want to be looked at,” Ritchie says in a video of the interview. “When people did look at him, he was pointing the gun at people. Just really off-putting.”

Click here to watch: Man who called 911 in Walmart shooting talks to NewsCenter 7

Interviewed recently by The Guardian, Ritchie said Crawford was waving the weapon around, but said “at no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody.”

Re-creation of scene

It is clear that the investigation has gone deeper than what happens on the videos and what witnesses have said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation closed the Walmart last week to re-create the shooting.

Gunshots, likely blank bullets, were heard Wednesday at about 3:45 a.m.

Read: State investigators re-enact Walmart shooting at store

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