Baltimore Police Department Body camera footage released At Tuesday It shows an officer shooting a black teenager in the back as he tries to escape. The officer loudly urged the youth to drop a gun and then quickly fired. The teenager was seriously injured and lost several organs. Police said they discovered a gun on him after Thursday’s shooting.
On camera is Mekhi Franklin, 17, walking down the sidewalk with someone. witnesses said local media outlet The Baltimore Banner that police officer Cedric Elleby was sitting on a porch before the shooting with Franklin. Franklin gets up and begins walking away; Elleby follows him.
It is unclear what the official said to Franklin and the other person as he approached them, but the two stopped and chatted briefly.
Then comes the sound. “Come here,” Elleby says to Franklin, to which the teen replies, “What brother?” Elleby then lunges at Franklin and tries to grab him, but Franklin backs off and begins sprinting in the opposite direction.
Warning: The video below contains graphic footage.
Elleby chases Franklin through a lawn, down a side alley, and then near the sidewalk in broad daylight. The chase lasted about 30 seconds.
Elleby yells at Franklin to stop and put the gun down after pulling what appears to be a gun out of his pants. The gun appears to still be in Franklin’s hand, but the footage does not show Franklin turning to Elleby or pointing the gun at him during the chase.
Elleby then fires four shots and Franklin collapses in an alley in front of a row house. The gun is on the ground off his body.
An emotional and chaotic scene ensued after the shooting as local residents arrived at the scene as Elleby and another officer tried to help Franklin. Voices can be heard in the background.
“They just shot him for nothing,” a civilian can be heard saying in the background.
Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Worley told the media in a news conference the day of the shooting that Elleby was on patrol in the area and saw Franklin “displayed the characteristics of a armed person.”
Police said Elleby was part of the department’s district response team, which is made up of plainclothes units commissioned with “proactive” policing that focuses on armed people, conducting traffic stops and car chases.
The Maryland Attorney General’s office said it is not currently investigating the shooting, but Mayor Brandon Scott has promised a thorough investigation. Keira Franklin, the teenager’s mother, said it wasn’t the first time police molested her son.
“This has happened before to the same police officer,” she said.