Washington, D.C., police officers said they shot and killed Justin Robinson because he grabbed hold of an officer’s gun after he was roused from sleep inside his car, which had crashed into the side of a McDonald’s earlier this month.
But the body camera video released Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department shows the officer sticking his gun into the driver’s side window, telling Robinson, “I’ll shoot you in the f—ing face,” before Robinson grabs hold of the barrel of the gun – in what appears to be an attempt to avoid getting shot in the face.
But that cop and a second cop fired more than 10 times, killing the 26-year-old Black man who was employed as a “violence interruptor” for Cure the Streets, according to the Washington Post. Cure the Streets is a public safety program launched by the city’s attorney general’s office “aimed at reducing gun violence,” according to the attorney general’s website.
Now, Robinson’s family has retained an attorney.
“He woke up to a firearm inches from his face. He had a natural inclination to move the firearm away,” Burrell wrote in a text message Tuesday morning to the Washington Post.
“MPD officers began discharging their weapons and continue to fire upon Justin even after they backed up out of his reach. What happened to Justin was not de-escalation, it wasn’t proportional and it wasn’t reasonable. It was brutality.”
Robinson’s sister, Tralicia, also questioned the officers’ tactics.
“He said I’ll shoot you in your f—ing face. He was rolling the window down. Why did you place the gun in the window and tell him that?” she told WUSA 9.
“No aid was rendered if you thought that he was slowly waking up all of these things leading up to his death could have been prevented.”
The two officers who opened fire have been identified as Vasco Mateus and Bryan Gilchrist and have been placed on paid administrative leave while they are investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C., according to the Washington Post.
The two 18-minute body camera videos released by the Metropolitan Police Department on Monday are from the cameras worn by the two officers.
But we have edited down the footage from both cameras and slowed down the footage of the shooting from both cameras to allow viewers to better determine what took place that night, which you can view below.
The Shooting
The shooting took place shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 1 when police responded to a call of a car that had crashed into the side of a McDonalds with an unresponsive man in the driver’s seat.
When police arrived, they spotted a gun on Robinson’s lap and spent several minutes strategizing on how to remove the gun from his lap. They also parked their vehicles in front of his car and behind his car to block any attempt of Robinson to flee.
Several officers then surrounded his car from both sides with their guns drawn, with one officer warning the others about potential crossfire and another officer advising them to aim down to avoid shooting each other. But not once did they attempt to rouse him from his sleep, likely because they feared he would shoot them.
It was not until about 10 minutes after they had pulled up to the scene that Robinson started waking up.
“Movement, I’ve got movement!” an officer announced as he approached the driver’s side window with his gun drawn.
Several officers then began surrounding the car with their guns drawn, yelling, “Hands up!”.
Robinson rolled down his window, which prompted Gilchrist to stick his gun inside the car, telling him he would shoot him in the “f—ing face.”
Robinson grabs the gun and appears to push it away from his face, which is when the officer fires 10 shots, followed by a single shot from Mateus. The two officers are now under criminal investigation.
The incident has led to protests against the police department as well as a #justiceforjustin hashtag on the social media platform X, allowing commenters to express their outrage over
“Another innocent black man killed by the police. All he was doing was sleeping in his car. He wasn’t even given a chance to fully awaken before cops shot him 13… times and killed him,” one person responded on X.
“Over 10+ shots for ONE unconscious person is INSANE… Get these trigger-happy officers off the streets!!! Police so panicky they don’t even know how to de-escalate a situation without killing someone,” another person wrote.
A similar incident took place last year when Washington, D.C., police officer Enid Jevric shot and killed a 27-year-old Black man named An’Twan Gilmore, who was found sleeping in his car with a gun in his waistband.
On Aug. 29, three days before the Robinson shooting, Jevric was sentenced to five years in prison for second-degree murder.
