An off-duty cop in North Carolina is under investigation for fatally shooting a Black man.
Jeffrey Hash, a sheriff’s deputy from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, has been placed on administrative leave while the Fayetteville Police Department and other officials look into his fatal shooting of 37-year-old Jason Walker. The Fayetteville Police Department released a statement, saying a preliminary investigation showed Walker ran into traffic and jumped on [the] moving vehicle” that Hash was driving at the time. “The driver of the vehicle shot [Walker] and notified 911,” police said, according to CNN.
However, on Sunday, Fayetteville Police Chief Gina V. Hawkins said an analysis of the vehicle’s “black box” showed “that vehicle did not impact anything or anyone.” In addition, the analysis showed the windshield wiper was ripped off and used to break the windshield in “several” places, the Daily Beast reports.
There’s also a video from a person who says they were “first on the scene.” Their video shows the man standing near the driver’s side of a red pickup truck making a phone call on a cell phone. Right next to the man was another man lying on the ground bleeding, and two other people were there, seemingly trying to assist him. When police arrived, the two others claimed they saw nothing. When the officer asked the man who was driving, he told the officer, “I was coming down here, he ran across the street, so I stopped, he jumped on my car and started screaming…(unintelligible) beating the glass. I have my daughter and my child in here.”
Hawkins has asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to “take the lead on the investigation,” CNN reports. “Anyone who witnessed the incident, knows of anyone who witnessed the incident or has video of the incident before, during or after,” should contact the agency, a spokesperson for the agency said.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office stated that Hash has been “placed on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation.” They shared that their “condolences go out to Jason Walker’s family.” No charges have been filed in the case. Walker was a single father to his young son.
