June 10 (UPI) — Police in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., have released body-cam footage of a Black teen who was fatally shot by police nine days ago.
The Aurora Police Department said Friday that 14-year-old Jor’Dell Richardson was armed with a pellet gun during the June 1 incident.
The video shows officers chasing Richardson down an alley and tackling him. Richardson can be heard saying “Stop please, you got me.”
Shortly afterwards, one of the officers, Roch Gruszeczka, fires his weapon, hitting Richardson’s abdomen.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said Richardson’s pellet gun was an exact replica of a 9mm handgun.
“That is not a toy. That is a weapon,” Acevedo told reporters. “That’s the weapon we found on his person. God bless him. What’s the purpose of this? What role do these play? We have a 14-year-old killed dead.”
The chief added, “I am beside myself with anger because there is another Black woman who is about to bury her son … another one.”
Police initially responded to a report of some teens robbing a convenience store of several vape canisters.
Siddhartha Rathod, an attorney representing Richardson’s family, said the teen did not deserve to die.
“We need the equal right to make mistakes and live and breathe,” he said at a rally including family members. “Our Black and brown children have to have the ability to make mistakes. And have the same opportunities to surrender and not be shot, but to breathe. And Jor’Dell was denied that right.”