Tensions have been high overnight in Raleigh, North Carolina, after residents witnessed a police officer who shot a 26-year-old man.
According to release from the police, Javier Torres was shot by cops on Tuesday around 6:45 p.m.
Officers claim they were responding to a report of a man with a gun. The 911 call released revealed a caller concerned over an armed man making threats.
Police said when they arrived, Torres fled carrying a pizza box and a gun. According to police, Torres was ordered to stop repeatedly and to drop his gun.
Raleigh police chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said, “The officer initially asked Mr. Torres to stop, that was the initial line of communication.”
However, protesters maintained that Torres was unarmed and shot while running away.
According to ABC11, Deck-Brown spoke on the shooting and addressed the subsequent protests Wednesday morning and said the officer’s body-worn camera was activated. The department will petition for the footage to be released.
“The 911 call, it’s in reference to an individual with a gun,” Deck-Brown said of the call. “You will see the individual does have a pizza box, but he does have a gun.”
Torres was shot once in the abdomen and taken to a local hospital.
RPD said the officer who shot Torres was wearing a body camera that captured the shooting. Other officers present were also wearing cameras.
A large crowd of protestors gathered at the scene following the shooting and took to Deck Brown’s east Raleigh home. Some eyewitnesses also posted to social media.
Witnesses said Torres was only carrying a pizza box and that he was headed home to a nearby mobile home park. A crowd grew over time, and protests went on throughout Raleigh until late in the night.
Demonstraters gathered at multiple locations, including the courthouse, a nearby TV station, and also stood at the capitol building downtown.
In reference to the protesters, Deck-Brown said they were causing harm to people and property, citing one person was arrested and charged with assault. She urged the public not to rush to judgment and allow the investigation to occur, blaming the protests on “misinformation” spread on social media.
“This is not who we are as a city,” the police chief said. “But it’s also important that individuals who have a desire to voice their concerns, there is a method by which they can do that without damaging other people’s property, without harming other folk in the process. And we saw that last night… that’s not who we are.”
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