Here’s the Sunday open line. It’s now been updated with information from a news conference this afternoon by Interim Police Chief Wayne Bewley and Mayor Frank Scott Jr. on Friday morning’s police shooting of the driver of a suspected stolen vehicle.
I wrote originally that it’s a good sign the mayor arranged a news conference on the shooting. The details so far have been sketchy. Officer Charles Starks fired multiple times, killing Bradley Blackshire, after Blackshire reportedly refused to get out of a car the police said was reported as stolen and he reportedly began driving, striking Starks. A passenger with Blackshire has offered a different account of the shooting on Facebook and his family has also raised questions.
This may prove to have been a justified police shooting. The only way to know is
UPDATE: Scott opened the news conference by promising a full and fair investigation. He also promised to establish a community review board for police use of force and a task force on police-community relations.
The news conference didn’t provide a great deal more information on the shooting. Bewley said the investigation was ongoing. He did say Starks was released from the hospital with injuries to “lower extremities.” He also stood by initial announcement that the car was “moving” when Starks fired. The officer’s dash cam video was operating, Bewley said.
Scott said the main purpose today was to make clear there’d be a fair and full investigation, a phrase he used several times, and to show “nobody is above the law.” He said he made that same assurance both to Blackshire’s family and to Starks.
But he commented that relations between the community and police needed repair. To help heal that, he reiterated a campaign promise to create a civilian review board of police use of force and to create a police accountability task force to perform a comprehensive review of how officers interact with the community.
Here’s KATV’s video clip on Twitter.
Little Rock Police Department Interim Chief Wayne Bewley and Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. to hold a press conference on Friday’s officer-involved shooting. #arnews
https://t.co/OrGVGQXcje— KATV News (@KATVNews) February 24, 2019