Police release body cam video in fatal shooting of Black man outside Chester Walmart
The Chester Police Department has released an officer bodycam video that shows the fatal shooting of a Black suspect outside a Walmart last November.
The video released to The Herald Friday morning shows an officer with his gun drawn approaching the suspect. The video also shows the shooting, and officers later removing a gun from the suspect’s body. There also are enhanced photos that show the gun in the suspect’s possession.
Ariane McCree, who was handcuffed with his hands behind his back at the time of the shooting, died in the Nov. 23 incident.
The Herald is showing only a limited segment of the video to omit some of the more graphic scenes. The bodycam video has no audio, Chester Police Chief Eric Williams said.
According to the State Law Enforcement Divison and the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, McCree had a gun and charged at police while in handcuffs.
The S.C. attorney general’s office said in a written statement, based on video and witness statements, the shooting by two officers was self-defense. No charges were filed against the officers.
Much of the incident was captured on police bodycam video, dashcam video and store video. Williams released the bodycam video after The Herald and others asked that the video be made public.
Williams said Friday in a phone interview with The Herald there is no question McCree was armed. McCree also can be seen pointing the gun at police, Williams said.
“My officer took the action he took because he was facing an imminent threat,” Williams said. “There was a firearm in view and pointed at him.”
The incident started as a shoplifting case at the Walmart in Chester, S.C.
Williams said McCree had been handcuffed inside the store with his hands behind him. Williams said McCree then ran out of the store after assaulting an officer. In the parking lot, McCree assaulted an officer a second time, then went to his vehicle where he obtained a gun, Williams said.
McCree brought his hands around his side and pointed the gun at the officer while advancing toward the officer, Williams said. The officer then fired at McCree, Williams said.
Williams said he released the video to the media and public to show what happened.
“I wanted to put the body cam out there so the community knows what happened,” Williams said.
Williams said after the events across the country in the past two weeks, he wanted the video to be released.
Williams said he and his department extend their condolences to the McCree family.
Lawyers for the McCree family, and Williams, confirmed to The Herald on June 4 that McCree’s immediate family members and their legal team had seen all the videos.
The dashcam video from police cars, and other videos from the store and witnesses have not been released by the State Law Enforcement Division.
Rev. Earl Stringfellow, McCree’s uncle, said at a public rally June 4 the family will not stop pushing until they receive justice. He said the police did not have to shoot McCree.
Other Chester civil rights and community activists in Chester have said the shooting never should have happened.
The outcry for releasing the video became more intense in the past two weeks after the death of George Floyd, an African American, in Minnesota at the hands of police. Floyd’s death has sparked protests and rallies across America, including two rallies in Chester.
In February, McCree’s family filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against the Chester Police Department, the City of Chester, S.C., and Walmart. The suit claims wrongful death and that McCree’s civil rights were violated. That lawsuit remains pending.
In April, McCree’s lawyers wrote in federal court documents, which are part of the lawsuit, that police fired at least 25 shots at McCree while he was handcuffed.
McCree has been painted by police as “just another shoplifter who failed to follow police orders,’ the lawyers wrote.
The lawyers also wrote in April court filings that the videos of black men killed by police, including Michael Slager in Charleston and Eric Garner in New York, show a different story than what was released publicly by law enforcement officials.
“The video evidence that surfaced in each of these cases told a vastly different story than the official statements after these deaths,’ the lawyer wrote. “Through these videos, witness statements were undermined, additional evidence was located, and the civil rights litigation that followed led to meaningful reform in these communities and brought needed accountability against those who sought to shield the truth from public scrutiny,”
Mullins McLeod of Charleston, lawyer for the McCree family, issued a written statement to The Herald Friday on behalf of the McCree family.
The statement said:
“The Chief of Police is telling the community he is sworn to protect that Ariane aimed and fired a handgun while both arms were handcuffed behind his back, and despite the fact that SLED confirmed the weapon they say he had was never fired,” McLeod said in the statement. “I guess Chief Williams also has some beachfront property in Oklahoma he would like to sell.”
SLED did investigate the shooting.
Williams told The Herald that McCree had the gun and aimed it, but Williams and the SLED investigative report did not say McCree fired the gun.
The gun belonged to McCree and had been purchased by McCree at a Rock Hill pawn shop in 2016, according to the SLED investigative report.
The SLED investigative report from the incident, provided to The Herald in March when the decision was made by prosecutors to not file criminal charges, did not say law enforcement investigators found forensic evidence that McCree had fired the gun.
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Police release body cam video in fatal shooting of Black man outside Chester Walmart."
