Family of 11-year-old Mississippi boy shot by police officer calls for release of bodycam footage
The family of an 11-year-old Mississippi boy who was shot and wounded by a police officer while responding to a 911 call at his home last weekend has called for the release of police bodycam footage.
“The family deserves an answer and they deserve it as soon as possible because you had an 11-year-old boy whose life was taken within an inch,” the family’s attorney, Carlos Moore, told CBS News.
Moore said the family has requested from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) body cam footage of Adrian Murray, who was allegedly shot in the chest by an Indianola police officer early Saturday morning. Moore said the bureau will not release the footage while the investigation is ongoing.
Body camera footage can provide important evidence about what happened in an incident, but laws do not compel the public to release the footage. According to National Conference of State Legislatures.
“It’s unacceptable,” Moore said, adding that he believes investigators will not release the footage “because it shows things that are damaging to the city of Indianola.” Known as the “Crown of the Delta,” Indianola is located in the Mississippi Delta and has 10,683 full-time residents.
An officer from the Indianola Police Department came to the family’s home after the child called police about a domestic incident, said his mother, Nakala Murray.
Her daughter’s father knocked on the door around 4 a.m. on May 20 and “said he was upset,” Murry said, while her children and nephew were asleep in bed. She told CBS News that she gave her cell phone to her son and told him to call his mother and the police.
Her son first called the police, and then his grandmother, and was “trying to help protect his mom,” Moore said, adding that Adrian told 911 dispatch that the man did not have a gun. .
Police arrived at the home, and at first they knocked on the door, but then kicked it open, the family said.
An officer yelled, “Whoever is in the house, put your hands up and come out!” Murray recalled.
Adrien heard the command and walked out of his room into the living room, the family said. When he entered the room, Moore said, he was shot by the same officer who told him to come out.
Murry said her son fell to the ground, and then she grabbed him and tried to compress the gunshot wound.
“He started singing the gospel. He started praying,” Murray said.
Adrian was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and broken rib and was placed on a ventilator, the family said. He was released from the hospital on Wednesday, his family said.
Indianola police confirmed that Officer Greg Capers was involved in the shooting and is employed by the department, but referred any further questions to the MBI.
The MBI told CBS News that it is currently investigating the incident and gathering evidence. The agency said that because this is an open and active investigation, there will be no further comment.
A request for comment about the incident from Indianola Mayor Ken Featherstone was not immediately returned.
Indianola is located about 90 miles north of Jackson.