Indianapolis black leaders seek body cameras for officers

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers Sunday night when, police say, he accelerated a vehicle he was driving towards them, prompting the officers to open fire.

Black Leaders in Indianapolis are requiring the city’s police office to furnish every one of its officers with body cameras after the lethal police shooting of a 15-year-old carjacking suspect.

Police say the driver accelerated at officers, and they fired at him.

After a successful pilot program with body cameras, Indianapolis’ proposed 2016 budget will in fact include a request for them as well as funding for “small number” of dashboard cameras for police cars when the spending plan is detailed Monday, said Jen Pittman, a spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Ballard. A handgun was found near him, he said.

“There are questions that we just simply can not answer at this point”, Crowe said during a news conference on Monday afternoon about 16 hours after the shooting.

The officers involved will be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

This undated photo provided by the Marion Superior Court, Juvenile…

Green was the driver. He described him as “a young man who had some care he wasn’t getting”. “As our community heals and gains a better understanding of the timeline of events that led to this tragic incident, we must continue to have honest dialogue about holistic approaches aimed at preserving and maximizing human life – particularly the lives of our Black men”. Eric Hench said that after the vehicle was carjacked earlier Sunday evening, someone in the auto had fired four gunshots, but had not hit anyone.

Andre slammed into the driver’s’ side of one of the cruisers, “narrowly missing” an officer as he tried to escape, police said. Assistant Police Chief Lloyd Crowe has said only a small number of the department’s vehicles now have dashcams, and none was in use when officers shot Green.

Green’s family is outraged at the lack of video evidence from the shooting. None of the officers were wearing body cameras and no footage of the shooting has surfaced, reported the AP. Witnesses told police they heard a vehicle crash into a parked unoccupied vehicle.

He was a runaway, but a good kid going through something, she said.