Activists: Autopsy doesn’t settle question of why CMPD shot a man in March

Questions about the death of a man killed by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer weren’t answered by the release of his autopsy, activists say.

The autopsy found that Iaroslav Mosiiuk, 25, died from a single gunshot wound to the back. CMPD has said Mosiiuk was pointing a rifle and Officer Brian Walsh believed he faced an imminent threat when he shot Mosiiuk in front of his sister’s house in north Charlotte.

In a letter to Chief Kerr Putney and County Manager Marcus Jones Tuesday, state organizer Robert Dawkins of SAFE Coalition NC said the autopsy – and the location of Mosiiuk’s fatal wound – doesn’t show why Walsh felt an imminent threat.

SAFE is asking for more explanation about why Walsh used lethal force, and they’re also interested in seeing body camera and dash camera footage of the incident, Dawkins said.

Police released more information about why Walsh fired in a statement Wednesday afternoon. The statement said Walsh perceived an imminent deadly threat to one of his colleagues on the scene.

“Mosiiuk ran in the direction of Officer Dezenzo and began tracking Officer Dezenzo’s movement with his rifle,” police said.

Walsh watched this happen from behind Mosiiuk, the statement said, and shot him from that angle.

To see footage from dash or body cameras, someone – the police, a news organization or a member of the public – must petition the courts for its release. Police showed members of Mosiiuk’s family body camera footage in March.

Mosiiuk’s family has said his mental state had deteriorated in the week before his death. Radio traffic shows that police were called to the house because Mosiiuk was behaving erratically, looking for the rifle and saying he didn’t want to live any longer.

The SAFE letter asks whether any officer on the scene had gone through Crisis Intervention Training, which prepares officers to respond to people going through mental health crises. CMPD spokesman Rob Tufano said Wednesday that the department is finding out about that.

CMPD’s internal investigation of the shooting is ongoing, and Walsh is assigned to administrative duties.

Dawkins said Wednesday afternoon that he’s still waiting on a response from the police department or the county.

This story was originally published June 7, 2017 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Activists: Autopsy doesn’t settle question of why CMPD shot a man in March."