Video of police shooting ordered released

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge ordered a suburban Los Angeles city on Tuesday to release video of police fatally shooting an unarmed man two years ago.

The public should be able to see what led the city of Gardena to pay $4.7 million to settle a lawsuit with the family of the dead man and another man wounded in the shooting, Judge Stephen V. Wilson said.

But the order was stayed by a federal appeals court late in the day – hours after the court had released what Wilson said were “potentially upsetting and disturbing because of the events they depict,” but “not overly gory or graphic” videos.

A lawyer representing the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg had asserted there is intense public scrutiny of police shootings nationwide. The media organizations asked the judge to unseal the videos under a First Amendment right to access court documents.

Footage shot from three police-car cameras shows the killing of Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, who was stopped with two other friends by police investigating a bicycle theft early the morning of June 2, 2013.

The stolen bike belonged to Diaz- Zeferino’s brother and he was trying to find it, but he was shot when he didn’t obey officers’ commands to stand still with his hands in the air, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney in a report outlining why officers weren’t charged.

In the videos, Diaz-Zeferino, who was drunk at the time, first followed police orders to raise his hands, but then lowered them three times. The final time, he removed his ball cap, lowered his arms and reached out with his palms up. That’s when police opened fire.

Footage shot from the side where the three officers opened fire shows his right hand go out of view at his waist. Officers said they feared he was reaching for a weapon.