Another black man was shot and killed by police Saturday morning in Houston, TX. Police said that Alva Baziel was waving around a gun and pointed it at them when they opened fire. But surveillance footage from a nearby gas station shows otherwise. The video, which began to circulate Saturday night on Twitter, shows Braziel walk out toward an intersection. When the squad car arrives, he appears to put his hands in the air and turn around, standing still for a few seconds before police shoot him.
Carli Knox: Instagram | Twitter
Both of the officers on the scene reportedly were wearing body cameras, but that footage has not been released to the public.
Fury over Braziel’s death has erupted in the wake of two other citizen-recorded videos capturing police shooting black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
There has been protests nationwide for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile because people are outraged at how the police continue to kill innocent black men EVERYDAY.
It’s still unclear whether or not Braziel had a gun or if he even threatened police. Police protocol in most U.S. cities encourages officers to use lethal force if they feel someone is threatening them, but there are often many other tools and opportunities to de-escalate a situation. Unfortunately those tools were not used to their full potential or at all in many police shootings.
For example, in a majority-white neighborhood of Houston this weekend, an armed suspect fired seven rounds at police officers. Yet police managed to end the standoff with gas and other non-lethal means without killing the man. That man has now been transported to a psychiatric center for an evaluation.
Watch the video below and then let us know thoughts on this situation and police shootings in general?
Source: Instagram
