Following a court ruling ordering for immediate public disclosure, the Albuquerque Police Department released a cell video from a shooting in March.
Police say this screenshot of Lewis in the yellow jersey shows him with a gun. His family says it’s a glove. Still previously released by police.
The shooting, which occurred during the night of March 22, killed 17-year-old Jaquise Lewis and wounded six others. One of the wounded was paralyzed from the waist down.
Munah Green, Lewis’ mother, had been seeking the video and other records related to the shooting since April. The following month, APD released still images from the video in a press conference where they also said Lewis was killed in self defense.
NM Political Report and other media outlets had also sought the video. The video is available at the bottom of this story.
At that press conference, APD spokesman Tanner Tixier cited both the cell phone video and eyewitness testimony as evidence that Lewis had a gun and fired at people that night. One of the still photos shows a man in a yellow shirt wounded.
“At this point we do have a statement from witnesses, and based on video evidence we do believe that Jaquise Lewis was the one who fired those rounds and hit the other young man in yellow,” Tixier said at the press conference.
Tixier added that APD at the time hadn’t forensically confirmed that Lewis was a shooter that night.
APD showed Green, her mother and one of her legal representatives the video in June. All three came back arguing that the video showed Lewis being pursued and shot.
APD, however, refused to the release the video publicly, citing that it would hinder their investigation of the incident. In July, Green sued for release of the video and other records and won the case and a court ruling this week.
The video
Released publicly for the first time late Friday afternoon, the cell phone video starts with a fist fight. Lewis is first seen getting punched by a woman, and then punching back a woman. Two groups of people are then fighting each other, and Lewis and the group he’s with walk to the parking lot.
The first noticeable gunshots heard in the video happen around the 1:00-minute mark. They occur at a distance from the camera and it’s unclear who’s firing them, or if they hit anybody. Two more gunshots are fired again at the 1:20-minute mark, but the video becomes shaky at the sound of the shots. Again, it’s indecipherable to tell who fired them.
Shortly after these gunshots, Lewis is seen approaching a crowd of people closer to the camera and throwing his arms up. He then turns around and walks back in the street. At the 1:30-minute mark, someone fires eight rounds as Lewis is walking away.
Here are the videos. Be forewarned, there is graphic imagery including fights and gunshots.
