A man was shot on Wednesday by a police officer in the state of Virginia, United States, who mistook the phone in his hand for a gun.
Isaiah Brown, a 32-year-old African American, was shot while on the phone with 911 to report a domestic incident, according to the recording of the phone conversation that was made public on Friday.
The officer who shot him then mistook the phone for a gun, as revealed by footage captured by his body camera.
“Drop the gun now and stop walking towards me,” the policeman can be heard saying, before he shoots the man.
A spokesperson for the Virginia police, however, clarified that Isaiah Brown was unarmed at the time of the incident.
“After viewing the Spotsylvania County officer’s body camera video and listening to the 911 call, it is evident that Isaiah Brown’s tragic shooting was completely preventable,” the family lawyer said. of the victim, David Haynes, in a statement obtained by CNN.
The man was taken to hospital to treat serious injuries, but would be out of danger, police said.
An investigation was opened at the request of the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office after the officer was placed on administrative leave.
“The officer in question made multiple basic policing errors and violated established protocols,” added the lawyer. The officer was located nearly 50 feet from Isaiah, was never threatened and should not have loaded his gun ”.
The same agent had also driven the individual home an hour before the facts, when he answered a call for an “invalid motorist”, confirmed the police of the State of Virginia to the American media.
The event took place in an already tense climate in the United States, with authorities increasingly under scrutiny after numerous fatal shootings against African Americans.