Video After The Jump
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Sean Reed was running from the cops and knew it was not going to end well.
On Wednesday night, a police chase ended when an officer with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shot and killed Reed following a pursuit.
The last 14 minutes and 44 seconds of his life — the police chase ending and later his cellphone phone recording the blue sky above him and the voices around him — were recorded and broadcast on Facebook Live. Thousands watched it live.
Family members said Reed was 21 years old.
Knowing how the video ends makes it difficult to watch. He apologized to his mother. He ran through a police barricade. He used language some would consider obscene. Shots were heard.
He was a young man on the run and only he knew the real reason why.
Since the fatal shooting, News 8 has learned Reed had a criminal background. He’d been in the Air Force. His family members have publicly mourned his death. Plus, the Marion County prosecutor on Friday called for an independent prosecutor because the chief of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department himself was part of the chase.
The case, in some part because of the Facebook Live broadcast, has created a swirl of protests in Indianapolis and national news reports. Most everyone has an opinion about the fatal shooting by a police officer who has yet to be named, and many of those opinions are posted on social media replaying the video.
Plus, it’s no secret that there is a level of mistrust toward police, regardless of the race of the officer, in the black community.
James Wilson says he didn’t know Reed but has become familiar with his story in the last 48 hours. Wilson founded the nonprofit Circle Up Indy to take on economic, employment and violence issues in Indianapolis.
“I don’t want to speak for Sean and his family by any means,” Wilson said while talking with News 8.
“And I don’t think so much as a race thing in this scenario, but, once again, we don’t know what was going on in Reed’s head by any means. The only thing I seen once again was the visual.”
The video of the chase will be debated for years. The central questions may never get answered: Why was Reed running? Why did police call off the pursuit?
“There is a lot to look at. There is a lot to look at from all perspectives, right? Especially from our community perspective and law enforcement perspective, right? They have to look at things, how they happened, how they unfolded, as they are as they are doing right now, and we in the community, we have to take a look back, a step back and look at it, too. What really happened? What is the real truth, and that is what we are asking for,” Wilson said.
The chief of IMPD, Randal Taylor, said the department’s reputation has taken a hit.
“We recognize and are saddened that this mutual trust that is so valued has been eroded over the last 24 hours,” Taylor during a Thursday press conference in which he also talked about an early Thursday morning fatal police shooting and the death of a pregnant woman in a Wednesday night crash involving an IMPD vehicle.
WISHTV.com has more than an hour of Sean Reed’s Facebook Live post. Reed’s last words were expletives toward the police chasing him.
The next words in the video came from a person believed to be the officer who shot Reed. The officer calls out over the radio there was a police-action shooting. The next words from the same voice, but this time a highly emotional voice, are “Oh, my God” followed by an increasing chorus of police sirens.
When Reed got out of his car and ran did he know that police would shoot? Had he pulled over and stopped instead of running, what would have happened?
“I’m not arguing about what the scenario may be or if he ran or didn’t run or shouldn’t have run, so forth and so on. That is not my place until I have all the clear facts,” Wilson said.
Police say the facts are that shots were fired from both the officer’s gun and a gun found next to Reed.
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