Philadelphia’s police commissioner said on Wednesday that a police officer who shot and killed a driver who was sitting in his car last week in north Philadelphia is being suspended and will be fired.
Danielle Outlaw said that officer Mark Dial will be suspended with intent to dismiss him in 30 days for refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the 14 August shooting death of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry.
Newly released surveillance video appeared on Wednesday to contradict the police department’s initial narrative of events.
On 14 August, Irizarry was shot and killed in his car in the north-east suburb of Kensington. In a press conference shortly after the incident, Cpl Jasmine Reilly told reporters that Irizarry had stepped out of his vehicle “with a … knife” following a traffic stop and that officers gave “multiple commands for him” before Irizarry “lunged at the officers”.
“One of the officers discharged his weapon multiple times,” Reilly said.
Two days after the incident, Outlaw, the commissioner, told reporters that the initial account of events was not what actually happened, as she announced that Irizarry was “driving erratically” and that he was going the wrong way down a one-way street before he pulled into a parking spot.
Two officers then approached Irizzary who was inside, not outside, his vehicle when he was shot by one of the officers, according to the revised police statement.
“The body-worn camera footage made it very clear what we initially reported was not actually what happened,” CBS58 reports Outlaw saying. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Outlaw adding that the initial information released was “generated internally” and that officials are “backtracking” to determine how the narrative was created.
Outlaw also said that police recovered a kitchen knife and a folded serrated knife from the car, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Speaking to CNN, Irizarry’s aunt Zoraida Garcia said that Irizarry liked to work on cars and that the knives may have been tools. “He liked to work on cars, and he would use the knives as tools when working on cars,” Garcia said.
Following the police department’s change in narrative, Garcia told CNN that the family was frustrated. “There’s a lot of anger, but also a lot of sadness … They murdered my nephew. If you commit a crime, you deserve to be punished,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that Irizarry had moved to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico seven years ago and did not speak or understand English. “If the officer was saying anything to him in English, I’m quite sure that he didn’t even underst[and] what was going on,” she told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
On Tuesday, the family of Irizarry released surveillance video provided by a local resident that showed Irizarry pulling into a parking spot and parking his car. Two officers are then shown leaving their patrol vehicle and approaching Irizzary’s car. One of the officers appeared to yell “Show us your hands!” repeatedly.
Approximately five seconds after the officers leave their patrol vehicle and approach Irizarry’s car, one of the officers fired what appears to be six times into Irizarry’s side of the car. At least one of the shots appeared to have struck the car’s windshield.
Irizarry’s family attorney Shaka Johnson said that there was an “intentional misleading of the public”.
“I don’t care how you unpack this, a death sentence is not called for, for erratic driving,” he said.
In announcing Dial’s suspension, Outlaw cited insubordination, refusal to promptly obey proper orders from a superior officer and conduct unbecoming, for “failure to cooperate in any departmental investigation”. The investigation continues.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
