An unarmed black teenager who broke into a car dealership in Arlington, Texas, was shot and killed by a police officer early Saturday morning after not complying with calls to surrender, according to local law enforcement.
The sequence of events is still not fully clear, but on security footage released by the dealership — which has been edited and does not show the shooting — 19-year-old college football player Christian Taylor is seen kicking a car windshield, climbing in and out of the car, and wandering around the lot around 1 a.m. on Saturday. Security called police after Taylor allegedly drove his SUV through the front window of the dealership (the video seemingly shows Taylor driving his SUV through a security gate, but not the window incident). Police claim Taylor was inside the showroom when they arrived, and he attempted to run, resulting in a confrontation in which rookie officer Brad Miller, 49, fired his gun four times while his training officer, a 19-year veteran, used his Taser. (Police audio obtained by the hacktivist group Anonymous makes no mention of a struggle.)
Miller, who graduated from the police academy in March and was approaching the end of his 16 weeks of field training, had no police experience prior to joining the force in September 2014. He wasn’t wearing a camera because the department doesn’t require them, though it “is in the process of implementing a pilot program for body worn camera use,” according to a statement.
According to Time, the FBI’s Dallas office has joined the investigation.
Taylor, listed as five-foot-nine and 180 pounds, played defensive back at Angelo State University. His father said, “What he’d done, ain’t no way right. But to shoot an unarmed man? You’re a police officer, you’re trained to take down men with your hands. You have your Tasers, you have your clubs, whatever there is. Unarmed, a 19-year-old – and you shoot to kill?”
Taylor had previously tweeted about police brutality. One such tweet, which has since been shared more than 15,000 times, says: “I don’t wanna die too younggggg.”
