The video, released by Connecticut State Police, shows Hamden police officer Devin Eaton’s body camera starting after Yale University officer Terrance Pollock conducts a stop on a red Honda Civic about a mile from the Yale campus.
Pollock conducted the stop believing the vehicle to be linked with a possible armed robbery reported to police by a 911 caller at around 4 a.m. on April 16.
During a brief investigation, officers Eaton and Pollock hastily conclude the red Honda Civic driven by 21-year-old Paul Witherspoon III with his girlfriend in the passenger seat 22-year-old Stephanie Washington is the vehicle involved in the robbery at the gas station, according to Fox61.
Body cam footage shows Eaton approach the Civic from the rear before the driver opens the door and attempts to get out.
Eaton then runs around to the passenger side of the car and fires several shots from his weapon then hides behind a row of garbage cans and another vehicle before calling into dispatch, “shots fired!”
Eaton fired 13 times and Pollock fired three rounds, according to Connecticut State Police Commissioner James Rovella.
The only problem, Pollock and Eaton apparently had the wrong suspects and Pollock apparently shot Eaton during the ordeal.
Rovella also stated that Pollock was hit with a “projectile” from Eaton during the incident.
Witherspoon’s attorney, Michael Dolan, says his client never had a gun and he was never trying to rob anyone.
Activists and community members have taken to protesting at Yale campus and in the streets calling for police accountability.
Rodney Williams, Witherspoon’s uncle, says the officers involved in the shooting should be fired.
“There is no city in this country that will allow officers to do that. I’m sure eventually they will be fired,” Williams told CNN. “No administrative leave, you’re out of here, and you can sue me for wrongful termination, but you should be fired.”
Pollock and Eaton have both been placed on paid leave by their respective departments.
Watch body cam footage in the above video, and surveillance video taken by a citizen journalist of the same incident below.