A recent video shows Oklahoma officer, Sgt. Kyle Holcomb opening fire on 14-yr old, Lorenzo Clerkly, Jr. on March 10.
Lorenzo was playing with friends at an abandoned house with airsoft guns when the Oklahoma City Police received a call of a break-in with potentially armed suspects.
According to the video, the Oklahoma police officer shot and injured the eighth-grader, which he believed to be armed, less than a second after ordering him to show his hands.
The family, represented by Smolen & Roytman Partner, Dan Smolen, believes the shooting was unjustified and is part of a pattern of misconduct at the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Dan Smolen released the following statement on behalf of the Lorenzo’s family: “Sergeant Holcomb did not give Lorenzo time to comply with his commands, and did not have probable cause to believe that Lorenzo posed a threat of serious physical harm to anyone when he began shooting. … Further, Holcomb had the cover and protection of the wooden fence when he encountered Lorenzo, who was a safe distance away. And there is no evidence that Lorenzo verbally threatened anyone, physically threatened anyone, attempted to evade arrest or otherwise resisted arrest. There was simply no justification for Sergeant Holcomb to shoot this young man. We now seek all of the answers. We seek full transparency. We seek justice for Lorenzo.”
The Washington Post recently published the body cam footage, in their article, “I think it’s a cap gun,’ the police officer said. He opened fire on an eighth-grader moments later.”
Read the article in the Washington Post and watch the video.
Read more from ABC News.
*Feature image from The Washington Post
