GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Video and dash camera footage provided by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety shows a Black teenager holding a gun when he was fatally shot by police last year in an encounter in a store parking lot.
The state agency on Wednesday released Gulfport Police body cam and dash camera footage from the October shooting of Jaheim McMillan, The Sun Herald reported.
Gulfport police said in a news release soon after the shooting that it occurred after officers responded to a 911 call about several minors waving guns at other motorists. Officers pulled the minors over in the parking lot of the store.
The footage shows the 15-year-old with a gun in his right hand when he jumped out of an SUV and ran in front of the store before Officer Kenneth Nassar shouted, “Stop, stop, Gulfport police, drop it!” McMillan was running with the gun near his side when he appeared to turn in Nassar’s direction and the officer opened fire, fatally wounding McMillan in the course of the estimated 9-second encounter.
Nassar started shooting just seconds after he got out of his patrol car, the camera footage shows. The Sun Herald said the footage also showed a second teen also got out of the car. The second teen ran the same way as McMillan before McMillan turned to run in a different direction just before the gunfire, it said.
McMillan, a Gulfport High School freshman, fell to the ground with a single gunshot wound to the head after Nassar fired eight shots in his direction. The video shows McMillan lying on the sidewalk in front of the store for at least seven or eight minutes without any aid.
At least 20 minutes passed from the time of the shooting and paramedics taking McMillan from the scene to an area hospital for treatment. He was later moved to a hospital in Mobile, where he died two days later when he was taken off of life support.
Three other teens who were with McMillan are shown on video outside the car on the ground with their arms stretched out above their heads. Gulfport police arrested the four other minors while McMillan was on the ground bleeding, the video shows.
A Mississippi grand jury found “no criminal conduct” by the police officer who shot McMillan, state Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Wednesday.
Fitch said in a statement that her office presented information from the investigation into the shooting to a Harrison County grand jury earlier this month. Because the grand jury declined to indict anyone in the shooting, Fitch said her office will take no further action in the case.
Since the shooting, McMillan’s mother, Katrina Mateen, and other supporters have held repeated protests to demand the police camera footage of the shooting and for the prosecution of the police officer responsible for the teen’s killing.
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