A newly released video of the deadly confrontation between sheriff’s deputies and a homeless man in San Clemente, California, shows the officers debated whether or not to stop the man.
According to Newsone, the video shows the two Orange County sheriff’s deputies casually debating whether to confront the 42-year-old black man, Kurt Reinhold. The deputies were on patrol and assigned to the homeless outreach team when they observed Reinhold jaywalking last September.
“Watch this; he’s going to jaywalk,” one of the deputies said to the other. A deputy then questions Reinhold, asking him, “Are you going to stop, or are we going to have to make you stop?”
“Jaywalking here? That’s ridiculous,” Reinhold responded to the officers.
Video footage from an eyewitness’s cell phone captured the confrontation between Reinhold and the officers, with him asking the cops, “What is your problem? Why are you touching me?”
Moments later, as both deputies tackled Reinhold, one of them yelled that Reinhold had his gun. Surveillance video then appears to show Reinhold’s hand near one of the officer’s holsters before one of the deputies fired two shots.
The only official comment offered to the public has been a prerecorded video from the sheriff’s department that stated judgment on the incident was being withheld “until all facts are known, and the investigations are complete.”
The attorney for Reinhold’s family, John Taylor, called the September 23 encounter “a blatant, racially motivated stop.”
“They create the confrontation. They escalate the confrontation. They are the first person to put their hands on him, and they end up taking his life, shooting him to death,” Taylor said.
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