Body cam video proves three Kentucky cops told tall tales in their narrative on August 4 when they said non-violent 57-year-old Army Veteran Darnell Wicker came at them with a knife and refused their commands to put it down, which made two of them fear for their lives and shoot him several times, killing him.
The knife was actually a handsaw Wicker used for his job as a landscaper, according to USAToday.
Darnell Wicker, completely deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other, was holding a landscaping tool when police gave him only two seconds to drop it before fatally shooting him several times.
“They just said, ‘Drop your weapons,’ said Anita Jones, Wickers girlfriend of 22-years, who witnessed the shooting and called the cops about a domestic dispute.
“He had no chance to drop the weapon. He had no time to even drop the weapon. When they said drop your weapon, it was pow, pow, pow, pow . . . that fast. Exactly like that. He had no chance at all.”
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The videos released on August 9 supports Jones’ eye-witness testimony about what took place after Louisville Metro cops Taylor Banks, Beau Gadegaard and Brian Smith arrived at her home.(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:8606150711183207,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7736-8965"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.lockerdome.com/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");
Banks and Gadegaard, the ones who shot Wicker, are currently on paid leave during a so-called internal affairs investigation.
As Banks’ body cam video footage shows the distance between Wicker and police, recorded audio captures the amount of the time between the initial command to drop what appears to actually be a saw and the time they fired several rounds into his body is about two seconds.
Wicker appears to be several feet away, not posing an immediate threat, even though he was legally carrying a potentially dangerous weapon before he was shot.
“Do not move!” the two cops yell at his lifeless body until they finally handcuff it.
After the shooting, things continue to spiral downward.
During precious moments critical to possibly save Wicker’s life, police stood by and never attempted life-saving CPR efforts on Wicker, even though they were equipped and trained to do so.
Instead, the Kentucky cops worked on securing the area with crime scene tape for nine minutes, telling EMS to hurry up and get there because the man they shot had stopped breathing.
Meanwhile, Jones’ son can be heard asking, “Ya’ll ain’t gonna try no first aid or nothing bro?”
“We’ve got an ambulance on the way,” one cops assures him.
EMS arrived and pronounced Wicker dead.
Wicker was completely deaf in one ear, and hard of hearing in the other.
His girlfriend said he was never violent and thought calling the cops was a good idea, because it had worked to make him leave in the past.
“He’s never been violent, he’s just hard-headed,” Jones told courier-journal. “He just does stuff that makes me mad. We’ve been through this a couple times, but he’s never been violent.”
“I didn’t want that to actually happen,” said a regretful Anita Jones. “I just wanted the situation to be OK. I didn’t want them to shoot. I didn’t think that was gonna happen and that made me feel sad.”
Jones’ said she called the police after Wicker had kicked in her door. After she noticed his bike outside, she called 911 and requested assistance from Louisville Metro Police.
Now the Joneses are questioning why it took so many gunshots to “neutralize one old man,” how come it took so long for emergency aid to arrive.
And, apparently having not witnessed the same events Louisville Metro cops claimed they saw, what it meant when Bank said Wicker “started kinda swinging around a bit, kinda came at us, so we shot.”
Banks can be heard in the video getting his story lined up with another officer.
“He came out the door, was holding the knife in his hand. He started kinda swinging it around a little bit,” he concocted. “He kind of came at us. And so we shot.”
According to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBR), all cops are granted 10 days before investigators can legally question them about what took place during any on-duty shooting,
“It went from zero to 60 fast, didn’t it?” Smith says to another officer in the video.
Anita Jones’ son Arthur said, “No matter how this turns out, they can’t tell me that this situation could have ended up totally different. He had knives. He could not do any harm to anybody unless you get within his reach or he comes to where he can reach you.”
“They [officers] all know CPR,” he added. “They couldn’t use it?”
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