Oklahoma police have released footage showing two Tulsa cops being shot during a June traffic stop, leaving one dead and the other critically injured.
District Judge William Musseman ordered the edited dashboard and body camera videos to be made public on Thursday and unsealed the records Monday morning, Tulsa World reported.
The nearly 16-minute footage shows the suspect, David Anthony Ware, being pulled over early on June 29 for failure to yield, making an illegal left turn and operating a vehicle with expired tags.
The encounter escalates several minutes in, with Officer Aurash Zarkeshan ordering Ware out of the car because it’s going to be towed, asking him, “Are you going to get out of the car or am I going to tase you?”
Dashcam video shows Zarkeshan and Sgt. Craig Johnson scuffling with Ware after pulling him out of the car — and Ware opening fire on both, killing Johnson and injuring Zarkeshan.
The video shows Ware shooting Johnson, who falls to the pavement, then firing another shot at the sergeant from a distance.
Johnson died June 30 after being taken off life support.
Ware’s attorney Kevin Adams pushed for the release of the videos, saying that a probable cause affidavit inaccurately described Ware as standing over Johnson while firing three more times.
On Monday, Adams said the videos show the shooting was “not this cold, calculated action on Ware’s behalf like they’ve been trying to portray it.”
At a press conference, Police Chief Wendell Franklin and Mayor GT Bynum urged the public not to watch the videos, as the top cop disputed claims that his department misled the public on what actually happened.
Franklin said the video showed the officers ordering Ware out of his car dozens of times and using non-lethal weapons — a Taser and pepper spray — on him prior to the shooting, KTUL reported.
The chief said the video is evidence that should play out in court, not the public.
“You would never be allowed publicly to see the execution of a criminal, yet today you get to publicly see the execution of a police officer. What kind of society is that?” Franklin said.
Ware, 33, is charged with first-degree murder in Johnson’s death, shooting with the intent to kill Zarkeshan, drug possession with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm after a felony conviction.
His friend Matthew Hall is charged with accessory to murder and accessory to a felony for allegedly helping Ware evade arrest after the fatal shooting.
Both men are due back in court on Oct. 5.
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