After a vehicle pursuit on April 27, a white Houston police officer fatally shot a black man, according to chilling body camera footage.
Narcotics Officer Shane Privette gets out of his patrol cruiser as his colleague reports that the suspect, 29-year-old Jalen Randle, is fleeing, according to a video released by the Houston Police Department on Tuesday.
Privette then orders Randle to ‘Let me see your hands,’ but as he finishes the sentence, a gunshot is heard, and Randle collapses, dropping a bag and a sandal.
Privette reacted to the shooting instantaneously, saying: ‘Oh s***,’ as he runs over to examine Randle, who is by then lying face-down on the street.
Another officer, identified by the Houston Police Department as Officer Mansker, then handcuffs Randle who appears unresponsive and limp on the ground.
Officer Mansker is heard asking Privette if Randle had a gun, but Privette does not appear to answer.
A handgun was later found zipped inside of the bag Randle was carrying, however, it was not visible at the time Privette shot.
Privette could also be seen dragging Randle’s body onto the sidewalk, revealing a patch of blood on the grass and sidewalk.
He asks: ‘Where is he hit?,’ to which Mansker replies, ‘In the neck or something.’
The officers could be seen trying to stop the bleeding from his neck as they called paramedics into the scene, with one officer telling Randle to ‘keep breathing, bud.’
But Randle was pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital, KHOU reports, and an independent autopsy commissioned by his family determined he was shot in the back of the head.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined he died of a gunshot wound to the neck – but did not specify where the round entered.
Houston Police say the shooting occurred as they were trying to arrest Randle on three felony warrants for aggravated assault of a family member and evading arrest, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Randle was seen getting into the passenger seat of a silver SUV, and police followed the vehicle until the driver, identified as Elvin Robertson, 32, made an alleged traffic violation.
An officer reportedly tried to pull the vehicle over, but Robertson refused to stop for about half a mile until he reached the 8700 block of Josie Street, where the officers pinned his vehicle in a so-called PIT maneuver.
Following the incident, Robertson was arrested and was charged with a misdemeanor evading arrest charge.
Robertson’s lawyer, Sam Milledge II, though, claims that Robertson did not know that authorities were seeking Randle and when police tried to pull him over he flipped on his hazard lights and tried to drive to a nearby relative’s house for safety.
Meanwhile, police claim that Randle was fleeing the scene and was reaching back into the car when Privette shot him.
Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officer’s Union, said he believed the shooting was justified.
‘I think it was completely justified with the fact that we are looking at an armed suspect,’ he told ABC 13. ‘He’s got multiple felonies for aggravated offenses, and then on top of that he’s got two objects – one in each hand, that are both black, and as he turns, the officers can’t wait to find out if that’s a gun or not.’
Griffith added that Randle should have complied with the officers, knowing they were coming to arrest him.
‘We’ve got units behind him in a chase and we have officers stopping and getting out in front of him, he obviously knew what the deal was. All he had to do was comply,’ Griffith said.
‘Sadly, it was a horrible outcome and I feel for the family,’ he said. ‘But again, had he just complied, we would not be in this situation right now.’
But Randle’s family says the body-worn camera footage shows he did not have time to react.
‘In a matter of seconds, as soon as he got out of the car, he was shot,’ his father, Warren Randle told ABC 13. ‘He’s never got a chance to even hear commands.’
Now, his father said: ‘He’ll never get to go to his daughter’s graduation’ from pre-school. ‘It’s terrible.’
And in a statement to KHOU, famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing his family, said: ‘The brutality displayed in this video is extremely disturbing from the officer firing a deadly shot seemingly as he ordered Jalen to put his hands up, to the way they handcuffed and dragged his lifeless body across the ground.
‘We demand full justice for Jalen Randle and his family.
‘This officer needs to be held accountable immediately.’
Privette has previously been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly kneeling on a drug suspect’s face during a 2017 arrest.
He was charged in 2019 for aggravated assault in that case, but a second grand jury absolved him of any wrongdoing three months later, citing new, unspecified evidence.
Then-Police Chief Art Acevedo also said at the time that an internal probe cleared Privette of the excessive force allegation.
Privette is now on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has said the case will be brought to a grand jury – as all officer-involved shootings are.