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United States News Title: It started as a noise complaint. It ended in another fatal Phoenix police shooting Ryan Whitaker had heard a stranger knock on his Ahwatukee apartment door in the middle of the night earlier in May. So when he heard a similar knock on a Thursday after 10 p.m. later that same week, he answered the door holding his 9mm gun. Holding the gun in his right hand, he was confronted by two Phoenix police officers standing on either side of the door. They appeared surprised by the sight of the firearm, body camera footage shows. Three seconds after Whitaker opened the door, Phoenix officer Jeff Cooke shot Whitaker in the back at least two times, killing the 40-year-old man. The deadly episode, which happened on May 21, is part of a string of Phoenix police shootings this year that has, yet again, reinvigorated criticism from advocates who say officers are too quick to use deadly force to resolve incidents. Phoenix police had portrayed Whitaker's shooting as an emergency domestic violence call. A 30-minute police body camera video released this week indicates the incident started over a noise complaint from a neighbor upstairs who called police twice. The police report and Officer John Ferragamo's body camera footage was released this week as part of a public records request from The Arizona Republic and the family's lawyer. Ferragamo was the other officer at the scene with Cooke. He pointed his firearm at Whitaker but did not shoot. The family's lawyer says the footage shows Cooke overreacted and was reckless. "The Phoenix Police Department knew from the night of the shooting that this was a false and exaggerated 911 call," Matthew Cunnigham said. The caller complained about people screaming at each other and said he couldn't go to sleep because of the noise. In a second call to 911, he alleges that the screaming had escalated into a physical fight. "It could be physical," the caller told a 911 dispatcher. "I could say yeah if that makes anybody hurry on up. Get anybody here faster." When Cooke and Ferragamo arrived at the apartment building, Ferragamo sounded annoyed because the caller didn't provide more details, according to the videofootage. "Did you like all that helpful info we got from our complainant?" Ferragamo is heard telling Cooke as they walk to Whitaker's apartment, according to the footage. "'I'm just gonna say yes to all the questions to get the officers here faster,'" Ferragamo says, mocking the caller. Cooke's unedited body camera footage was not released and his responses are inaudible. As they approach the apartment, no sounds of fighting or loud noises are heard coming from the unit. Moments later, Ferragamo knocks on the door, identifying himself as Phoenix police. The officers stand to either side of the door, making it impossible for anyone looking out of the peephole to see who was there. Whitaker opens the door, with the gun in hand and rapidly takes a couple of steps out of the apartment as Ferragamo flashes a light in his face. Ferragamo greets Whitaker and then repeatedly yells "hands," according to the footage. Whitaker is seen in the video starting to get on his knees, putting his left hand up and putting the gun behind his back when Cooke fires into Whitaker's back. A slow-motion video, edited by the family lawyer, appears to show that Whitaker had put the gun down, Cunnigham said. Whitaker then falls to the ground, writhing in pain and struggling to breathe. "Holy sh-t!" Ferragamo is heard saying in the video. Seconds after the shooting, Whitaker's girlfriend, Brandee Nees walked out of the apartment screaming. "Why did you guys shoot him?" Nees yelled. Cooke responds, "He just pulled a gun on us, ma'am." "Because it's dark and someone just knocked on the door," she yelled at Cooke. In the video, Nees begs to be near Whitaker who can be heard on the video loudly taking his last breaths on the concrete floor outside the apartment door. Nees, who is several feet away from Whitaker at this point, asks the officer if he could handcuff her so she could be near her boyfriend. After the officer says no, she asks if Ferragamo could check if Whitaker was okay. "I'm leaning toward the fact that he's not," Ferragamo responds. According to the police report, Cooke later that night told detectives that he shot Whitaker because he feared for his life. Ferragamo later tells another officer at the scene that he would have done the same, but didn't because Cooke did, according to the video footage and the police report. Ferragamo said the shooting happened so fast that he didn't know if Whitaker was aware that Cooke was behind him, according to the video footage and the police report. Whitaker's family, Cunnigham and advocates have demanded that the police department release unedited body camera footage from both of the officers and the 911 calls. Cunnigham said that after viewing the 30-minute footagefrom Ferragamo, it reinforces to him that Whitaker was not a threat. Critics have said that the YouTube videos the police department produces to update the public on police shootings, including this incident, only include selective information that helps justify the shooting. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
That's one explanation. Another would be that the officers stood to either side of the door making it impossible for anyone to shoot them through the door.
They knocked and yelled "Phoenix police". "U.S. DOJ report shows that 40% of officer deaths are related to domestic violence calls". So there's that.
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