At :46 of a minute into the video, Salt Lake City police officer Bron Cruz is ordering a man to remove his hands from inside his pants.
At :50 into the video, the man removes at least one hand from inside his pants, lifting up his shirt, showing no gun.
At :51, the officer shoots him dead.
That was enough for Utah prosecutors to justify the shooting of 20-year-old Dillon Taylor outside a convenience store August 11.
The shooting was captured on the officer’s body cam. Prosecutors say the video showed his other hand remained inside his pants but it’s not clear in the video.
According to the Associated Press:
Officer Cruz yells, “Get your hands out now,” pointing his gun at Taylor. “Get your hands out.”
“No fool,” Taylor responds, before lifting up his shirt with his left hand — his right hand in the waistband.
“Get ’em out,” Cruz yells even louder.
Then, he fires two shots. Taylor crumbles to the ground, hit in the chest and stomach. He died at the scene.
Police later learned that Taylor didn’t have a gun, and neither did his brother and cousin who were with him. Those two immediately put their hands up when police officers arrived that day and weren’t injured.
But Gill said he evaluated the shooting based on the information Cruz had at his disposal during the events that made him believe Taylor had a gun and was a threat.
The incident was triggered by a 911 call from somebody who reported seeing “gangbangers” with a gun “looking for trouble.” When the person was asked by a dispatcher if they men threatened him, the person said no. That call led Cruz and two other officers to arrive to the convenience store where the shooting occurred.
So again we have another innocent person killed thanks to the See Something, Say Something paranoia of apologist citizens as well as the Comply or Die mentality of modern cops, not to mention the See No Evil leniency of the American legal system when it comes to cops that kill.
