Footage from a Memphis police shooting that happened over a year ago has just been released to the public, and we’ve got it right here for you on BCT. This one has an interesting twist to it. Police did indeed fire at this thug and hit him a total of nine times, yet none of those strikes was fatal. Turns out the dead guy beat them all to the draw and shot himself in the head first.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A traffic stop in July 2018 in South Memphis ended with a man dead, and authorities have released body camera footage from that night, showing what they say proves D’Mario Perkins committed suicide and was not killed by the officers.
No charges were filed against officers David Reinke and Brandon Barnes after Perkins was killed during a traffic stop on July 25, 2018, near Third Street and Mitchell Road.
The officers shot Perkins as he showed them his gun. Perkins died from his injuries, but the medical examiner confirmed he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, not from bullets fired at him by the police officers.
But those rounds didn’t miss. Here’s the damage the medical examiner said they inflicted:
“Perkins was shot in his torso, left shoulder, back, right shoulder and was grazed on his right ear, right side of his jaw, left eyelid, left eye and left elbow, according to the report.” And further stated, “although the gunshot wound in the back has a high mortality rate, it is “potentially survivable.”
What did the fatal trick then?
“Perkins was shot in the head, causing skull fractures and bleeding in the scalp and brain as the bullet traveled through the right and left sides of his head, according to the report.
The medical examiner ruled the shot to the head as self-inflicted and listed it as the cause of death, before the other nine shots were fired.”
The body camera footage starts with one of the officers walking up to Perkins’ blue Pontiac car. When he gets to the window, Perkins can be heard telling him he will kill himself.
When the officer asked Perkins to clarify, Perkins said he was about to kill himself and showed the officer a weapon.
The officers screamed that Perkins had a gun, and multiple rounds of gunfire can be heard. After the gunfire, officers say Perkins was dead.
Yep that pretty much sums it up. For added dramatic effect you can watch it in slow motion beginning at 9:26.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said at the time that both the officers involved were wearing their body cameras at the time of the shooting. Neither officer was injured during the shooting.
Perkins’ family did not initially believe Perkins would have told officers he was suicidal.
Of course not! It’s never anyone’s fault but the cops. They think police just killed this guy for sport! When this incident fist occurred, a cousin spoke about the family’s opinion, saying, “D’Mario just wasn’t the type to try to take his own life.”
“He wouldn’t of done nothing [sic] like that at all. That’s just not in his character,” Kario said.
Kario said he had a family to live for. In fact, he had just celebrated his birthday the day before he died and his son was born the day before that.
“For them to say that he was suicidal and would shoot himself. That’s outrageous,” Kario said.
I guess you just didn’t know your nephew as well as you thought you did.
