Body-Cam Footage Will Set the Record Straight

VICKSBURG, Miss. – Two stories have emerged in the wake of the death of seventeen-year-old Amarion Thomas after being fatally shot in the process of the Vicksburg Police Department serving a warrant. Release of the body-cam footage will set the record straight.

This is the worst-case scenario, and Amarion’s family needs time to grieve their loss. The Vicksburg Police Officers involved also have experienced trauma. All parties involved need our prayers. No one wanted this outcome.

According to the Vicksburg Police Department, Thomas produced a weapon before officers opened fire, and according to the family (some of whom were home at the time that the warrant was served), Thomas was unarmed and was shot in the back while attempting to flee.

Both the family and the Vicksburg Police Department have publicly declared that their version of the incident is the correct one. Opinions are being formed as we speak over whether this was an avoidable tragedy or a split-second decision made by veteran officers to eliminate a threat.

There has always been a degree of distrust of authority by the public, especially when lethal use of force is used. Over the years, tragic stories such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have told the tale of the questionable use of deadly force by police across the country, and that has only stoked that distrust.

In both the Floyd and Taylor cases, video footage told the true story. Unaltered footage can’t lie. In both incidents, the officers involved were ultimately tried and found guilty of their crimes. Body cam footage has also exonerated officers from alleged wrongdoings, including the March 11, 2015 case in Cleveland of Theodore Johnson. Johnson shot an officer as they were climbing the stairs to his apartment. The officers did not immediately open fire. The body-cam footage shows the officers pleading with Johnson to put down the weapon, and it was only after Johnson raised it again that they shot him. A Grand Jury acquitted all four officers.

The body-cam footage should be reviewed by the family of Amarion Thomas and, if they deem it appropriate, released by the Vicksburg Police Department. The incident is still under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations. That process will be thorough but slow. The court of public opinion moves much swifter, and there is just enough information about this incident for people to pick sides.

Let’s set the record straight.