By Brad Brooks
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Friends and family of a Houston choir director and gospel singer who was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop demanded on Monday that video of the incident be released.
Adrian Medearis, 48, who was black, was shot during an alleged scuffle with a police officer who stopped him on suspicion of drunk driving early Friday.
The Houston Police Department said in a statement that Medearis was pulled over while speeding. An officer – identified as J. Ramos – conducted a field sobriety test.
The officer then tried to arrest Medearis on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, according to the police statement. Medearis allegedly resisted and grabbed the officer’s Taser, and the policeman then fired multiple times, including at least one shot that struck and killed the suspect.
No other officers were involved and there were no known witnesses, police said.
Police Chief Art Acevedo told the Houston Chronicle newspaper that the officer’s body camera was knocked off during the alleged struggle with Medearis, but footage from other cameras captured the incident.
Police, citing ongoing investigations of the shooting, have not released the video.
Medearis, a gospel singer well-known locally, was the choir director at the Evangelist Temple Church of God In Christ and several years ago formed the gospel group Standing in the Gap.
Dav Lewis, a longtime friend of Medearis, said he and family members are demanding that any video police have be released.
“Everybody – and especially his family – deserve to know what happened that night, they need to see what happened to their loved one,” Lewis said. “We must hold the police accountable and we’re not going to just sit back and take the police word on this.”
Lewis said it would be completely out of character for Medearis to react aggressively during a traffic stop.
Lewis also said that police should act quickly in releasing the video, citing the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was shot and killed by a white father and son while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, on Feb. 23. Charges in the Georgia case came more than two months after the shooting, and only after cell phone video of the killing went viral online.
“We deserve to see the proof of what police are alleging,” Lewis said. “Nothing is going to make sense until we see the video.”
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Dan Grebler)
