There has been a worrisome uprise in incidents of innocent, unarmed African Americans being shot by white police officers lately, which has, in turn spurred protests across the country. One of the latest shootings involves a black teenager in Los Angeles. Surveillance video of the incident has been released.
Carnell Snell Jr. was only 18 when he was shot by officers. They fired numerous bullets into his back as he ran away from officers. The vehicle that Snell was in was pulled over because officers thought that it was stolen. Snell got out of the car and ran.
Officers told him to stop, and Snell refused. This is when officers starting shooting Snell in his back. A news conference held two days after Snell was shot gave information that the young man had a gun on him. Officers felt threatened by him because he had a gun in his possession. Officers claim to have seen Snell pull the gun from his waistband while he was running and hold it in his hand.
The video that has been released tells a different story to some people. Viewers see that Snell is afraid of being caught, which is the reason why he is running from officers. Some of the people in the area have said that they saw Snell stop with his hands in the air while telling officers that he didn’t have anything.