CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—An unarmed motorist struggled with an Iowa officer and a police dog before the officer shot the driver when he tried to get away, paralyzing him, dashcam video released Thursday shows.
The man rushed to his pickup truck and got back inside, then the officer shoots him at close range as the vehicle rolls away, according to the video.
The video seems unlikely to resolve a debate over whether Cedar Rapids police officer Lucas Jones acted appropriately during the Nov. 1 shooting of 37-year-old Jerime Mitchell.
A grand jury in Linn County decided Monday not to indict Jones, a move prosecutors announced a day later. The county’s top prosecutor, Jerry Vander Sanden, said the video shows that Mitchell refused to comply with Jones and that the officer fired in self-defense during the scuffle.
But Mitchell has disputed that account, arguing that the officer was the aggressor throughout the confrontation. His supporters and civil rights activists have blasted the prosecutor for hastily ending the secret grand jury inquiry without obtaining any statement or testimony from Mitchell, who is hospitalized with a bullet lodged in his neck and unable to move most of his body.
“I was unarmed. I never struck the officer, or the dog. This has changed my life forever,” Mitchell said in a statement released by his attorney late Wednesday. “No one should ever be treated the way I was that night.”
