Body camera videos released by U.S. Park Police show details of the events leading up to their officer shooting and killing a teenager in a stolen car in Northeast D.C.
D.C. police flagged down a Park Police vehicle for assistance over what they said was a stolen vehicle on the 3400 block of Baker Street Northeast on March 18. There was a person sleeping inside the running vehicle on the driver’s side, which D.C. police identified as Dalaneo Martin, 17, of Northwest D.C.
In the body camera footage, two Park Police officers, identified as officers 1 and 2, and D.C. police, approached the vehicle. Officer 1’s video shows a D.C. police officer approaching the vehicle on the rear passenger side and going half-in, the officer’s feet not inside the vehicle. Officer 1 is seen entering the vehicle from the rear passenger side.
Officer 2’s body camera shows the other Park Police officer trying to enter from the rear driver’s side of the vehicle. Officers are heard saying, “Police. Don’t move. Don’t move.”
As the vehicle starts to move, Officer 2 is shown not being able to get in the vehicle; Park Police described the officer as being “dragged by the moving vehicle.”
Body camera video released by D.C. police shows Officer 2 caught in the vehicle before falling to the ground.
In Officer 2’s video, police are heard saying that the vehicle just took off with the other officer in the vehicle with the driver.
Officer 1’s video shows what unfolded inside the car. First, there was a struggle between officers 1 and 2 and the driver, with officers telling the driver to stop and the driver saying, “Get off me.”
Then, only Officer 1 is with the driver inside the vehicle, with the officer telling Martin, who was driving away, to stop.
“Stop, man. Just let me out,” Officer 1 can be heard saying. “Let me go. Stop. Stop, or I’ll shoot.”
The video shows Officer 1 firing his weapon at least five times from the backseat and Martin being struck from behind and screaming.
The vehicle crashed into a house on 36th Street Northeast shortly after. Park Police said no one was hurt inside the home, but there was structural damage to the house.
The next scene in the video shows the two Park Police officers rendering first aid to Martin until D.C. Fire and EMS arrived.
Martin was pronounced dead at the scene. Park Police said a firearm was found in the vehicle, and the two officers were taken to the hospital for treatment.
A longer video captured by Officer 1’s body camera shows Park Police and D.C. police discussing strategies on how to get the driver out of the vehicle, including opening the the door and grabbing him before he puts the vehicle in drive.
“If he takes off, just let him go. But don’t get inside that car,” a D.C. police officer can be heard saying. D.C. police have strict guidelines on when to engage in a vehicle pursuit
D.C. police are investigating what happened, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is reviewing the incident. The Department of the Interior, of which the National Park Service is an agency, is conducting an administrative review of the shooting, as well.
Park Police officers are authorized to use the same law enforcement powers as the D.C. police within the District.
You can see the body camera footage on the National Park Service’s website. (Editor’s note: The content of the video may be upsetting to viewers.)
