Cell phone video footage emerged this week showing police officers shooting a teenager to death at a gas station in Fresno, California.
The Fresno Police Department said the officers believed 19-year-old Dylan Noble possessed a firearm at the time of the shooting on June 25, but it emerged later that he was unarmed.
The 26-second clip that local newspaper The Fresno Bee published Wednesday shows two cops yelling orders at Noble ― including “Keep your hands up!” ― as he’s laying on the ground, face up, next to a pickup truck.
One of the officers fires a shot after Noble appears to lift at least one arm. Seconds later, a third cop with his gun drawn moves closer to the teen and an officer fires another shot. The footage shows Noble’s arms and legs moving, before the clip ends.
The officers shot Noble four times, but the clip below only shows the final two, the Los Angeles Times reports.
WARNING: The clip of the shooting below is graphic.
Several investigations of the shooting are underway, including initiatives launched by the FBI, the Fresno County District Attorney and the Office of Independent Review, according to The Fresno Bee.
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer told the LA Times Thursday that in the moments before the clip, Noble had raised his shirt with his left hand and reached into his waistband with his right hand. After officers warned Noble not to reach into his waistband, an officer fired two shots at Noble, which took place before the clip was recorded.
The entire shooting incident lasted for two minutes and 20 seconds, according to The Fresno Bee. The full video won’t be released until investigations are complete.
Dyer told local news station KCEE that he believes the officers involved in the shooting reacted accordingly. The two minutes that took place before the clip was recorded will be critical to investigations, he added.
The Fresno Police Department still needs to review the officers’ body cameras to determine whether or not the shots fired at Noble were justified, Dyer told the LA Times.
“There is going to be questions,” Dyer told the newspaper. “It’s an unfortunate tragedy that occurred in this city.”
Before the shooting took place, Fresno police officers were responding to a report of a man walking with a rifle, KABC reported. While searching for a suspect, the officers spotted Noble’s truck speeding and attempted to pull him over, leading to a police chase that lasted half a mile.
The officers followed the truck as it pulled into a Chevron gas station. Noble refused to show his hands when they approached him at the station, Fresno police said in a statement. He made a “conscious effort to conceal one hand behind his back, then in his waistband, as he exited the truck, and walked away from officers,” according to the statement.
Dyer told the Fresno Bee that the officers believed Noble was armed because he ignored their repeated commands to show both of his hands. Noble went on to place his right hand behind back his back while walking “toward the officers rapidly,” Dyer added.
That’s when an officer fired two shots that weren’t seen in the above clip, causing Noble to fall near the open door of his truck.
“When he gets within about 12 feet of the officers, he makes the statement ‘I hate my effing life,’” Dyer told local news station KFSN. “And then he quickly starts to pull his hand out when the officer fires two rounds and shoots him.”
One officer fired three rounds from his service handgun and a second officer fired one round from his shotgun, The Fresno Bee reported.
Noble’s parents, Victoria Nelson and Darren Noble, called for an outside investigation into their son’s death, as they spoke out for the first time Thursday during a news conference in northwest Fresno. They described Noble as a “peacemaker” who worked for a roofing and insulation company, but had aspirations of becoming a youth counselor.
Noble’s father Darren Noble told the Guardian that their attorneys are investigating the case, as they plan to sue the police department. They couldn’t understand why police approached his son with their guns drawn, he added.
“I’m sure he was scared,” he told the Guardian. “You can see he was still alive. He was trying to comply and they’re still yelling at him. You can see his hands in the video. They shot him more times just to kill him.”
Charles “Sid” Heal, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s commander, told the LA Times that it is odd that Noble’s officer-involved shooting lasted longer than two minutes.
“That would be highly unusual. It’s usually no more than five to 20 seconds between the first and last shot,” Heal told the LA Times. Once the first shots brought Noble to the ground, the officers would have had to reassess the threat their suspect posed, he said.
“Why didn’t officers move in after the third shot and restrain him? Fourteen seconds is a long time to wait,” Heal added.
The video of Noble’s final moments was released on the same day that a woman in Falcon Heights, Minnesota recorded a Facebook Live video of Philando Castile bleeding in a car after being shot by a police officer. Castile died shortly after being taken to the hospital.
All of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Noble are either on administrative or personal leave. The Fresno Police Department said it’s not releasing their names at this time because the officers received threats.
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