Video: A Kansas agent fired a driver by mistake because he was not wearing his seatbelt

An officer stopped the vehicle of Akira S. Lewis, an African-American man who was driving without a seatbelt and who refused to provide the police with an identity document accusing him of "stealing". to be racist (Video: Lawrence Police Department)

He was ordered to stop for not wearing the seatbelt while driving and ended with a bullet in the back. Video posted on Monday shows when a police officer shot Akira S. Lewis blew the gun by mistake, to confuse it with his taser.

Although the images recorded with the police car's camera have only been released this week, the incident occurred in may 2018 near Lawrence, Kansas.

That day, the policemanIan McCann forced Akira S. Lewis to stop, an african american man 35 years old traveling in his vehicle without a seatbelt.

After the stop, the driver refused to show his documentation. In addition, accused the racist agent and alleged that he had stopped his car simply because he was African-American. Ignoring the orders of the officer, he asked to see his superior.

"You go to prison" the policeman warned him.

"Of course not", answered Ian McCann.

At this time, the agent He asked for reinforcements from his partner, Brindley Blood, who approached the vehicle on the pbadenger side. When Ian McCan used force to allow the inmate to get off the vehicle, he resisted and started a camera-captured fight.

The two men continued to beat each other until they fell to the ground. In order to support his partner, Brindley Blood, he ran to both and He shot the African-American driver.

"Oh shit, I shot him," said the officer after wounded Akira S. Lewis, that we hear screaming in pain.

During the interrogation, the young officer explained that I wanted to take out his electric weaponbut instead he used his firearm.

"I fired it. I blew the weapon instead of the laser " recognized in his statement.

The injured bullet was transported to a hospital where he recovered serious injuries. According to his lawyers, the authorities did not support the health expenses resulting from the negligence of the agent.

Brindley Blood has been removed from officealthough he continued to receive his salary until January 2019, when he resigned from his post. He will be the subject of a trial, accused of a crime of Aggravated aggression.

His lawyers argued that, although Blood made a mistake, it was not imprudent, as the charge alleged, and the case that it was about to be removed. The sentence will be known later this week.

For his part, Akira S. Lewis will also face charges against him. He is accused of several faults, including badault a law enforcement officer. His lawyer, Shaye Downing, argued in a statement that the police who had arrested his client for not wearing the seatbelt "initiated physical contact that aggravated a situation that could easily have been solved by any other type of person." 39; intervention. "