It seems like barely a week goes by without fresh reports filling our news feeds of stories that point toward a truism I’ve written about time and time again: Police be lying.
In St. Louis, authorities on Monday released police body camera footage that shows a local police officer fatally shooting a Black teenager in the back of the head as he fled, which constitutes a direct contradiction to a previous police statement by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, which claimed the victim “turned and pointed a gun at officers when the detective shot the armed suspect.”
From the Associated Press:
Al Watkins, an attorney for the family of Emeshyon Wilkins, obtained the video as part of the discovery process in a federal lawsuit against the police department. Watkins said his office tried and failed to get the video through a records request.
“They fought that video issue for over a year,” Watkins told The Associated Press. “We had to file a federal lawsuit to get it. That’s not transparent. That’s not integrity. Indeed, it’s irresponsible.”
Wilkins was shot and killed in June 2024, just two weeks after he turned 17. He had no prior criminal history, Watkins said. Wilkins was Black.
Here’s what the police department posted from its social media accounts in 2024:
The juvenile in Tuesday’s officer-involved shooting has been identified as Emeshyon Wilkins, 17.
This is the juvenile’s gun recovered from the scene. The incident remains under investigation.
Original post from incident:
“Around 1:00pm on June 18th, Anti-Crime Task Force detectives attempted to stop a stolen SUV. After spiking the vehicle and a brief tactical pursuit, two suspects bailed and ran from officers near Whittier and Maffitt. During a foot pursuit, an armed suspect turned and pointed a gun at officers when the detective shot the armed suspect. A second armed juvenile was taken into custody and not injured. A third individual in the rear-seat was in the SUV and complied with officers. No officers were injured.”
And here’s what the video footage showed, according to AP:
The video shows the officer armed with a gun yelling at the teen to get on the ground as he raises the firearm. The officer can be heard telling the teen to drop a gun. The teen keeps running, and then the officer fires.
One of the four bullets struck the teen in the back of the head, killing him, the suit says. In the teen’s pocket was a firearm, but it was disassembled, in multiple pieces, and incapable of being fired, the suit says.
The video didn’t show the teen holding the firearm in his hand or pointing it at the officer.
Even the police department acknowledged Monday, after the video was made public, that “information provided by a third-party to investigators in the immediate aftermath of the incident was not consistent with the actual events or what was initially shared with the community.”
That’s a whole lot of words just to say, “Police be lying!”
And the fact that the department is going so far out of its way to use language that allows it to avoid calling a thing what it is indicates that, as usual, no cops will be held criminally accountable or disciplined at all for lying in their official reports.
Also, there’s still a dead Black teenager, who was likely shot and killed unjustly, whose family is demanding accountability while still grieving his loss.
“The family needs answers, and the only way answers can be given is if there is justice that is open and transparent,” said Watkins, who also reported that the police officer who killed Wilkins was placed on desk duty, with pay.
According to AP, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office said it received the police investigative report in October, regarding the shooting of the teen, and that it completes its own “review of the evidence and law to determine whether there is a basis for criminal liability.” It’s unclear whether the office’s statement meant to convey that it had reviewed Wilkins’ case, which, again, it said it received around six months ago.
“The CAO is committed to reviewing each matter as expeditiously as possible while ensuring that all available evidence and legal considerations are carefully and thoroughly evaluated,” its statement said.
Welp, we’ll see.
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