WATCH: Body cam video released in Sam DuBose shooting
WARNING: The video above may be too graphic for some viewers. Watch with discretion.
CINCINNATI – UC police officer Ray Tensing’s body camera video clearly shows that he committed “murder” when he shot and killed an unarmed black motorist at a traffic stop, prosecutor Joe Deters said Wednesday.
The shocking video shows Tensing, standing outside the driver’s door, with 43-year-old Sam DuBose at the wheel. The two men talk calmly and peacefully for about 90 seconds. Tensing repeatedy asks DuBose to produce a driver’s license. DuBose says he has a license but he doesn’t have it with him.
“I’m just going to go in the house,” DuBose says, with his car facing south on Rice Street in Mount Auburn.”Where do stay at? Down here?” Tensing asks.
DuBose: “Right around the corner.”
Tensing: “OK, well, until I can figure out if you have a license or not, go ahead and take your seat belt off.”
Tensing pulls the door latch and opens the door a few inches.
DuBose pulls it closed with his left hand and uses his right hand to reach for the car key in the ignition.
“I didn’t do nothing, man,” Dubose says.
“Go ahead and take your seat belt off,” Tensing says again.
DuBose turns the key and revs the engine, but the car hasn’t moved.
Tensing pulls his gun, shouts, “Stop! Stop!” and shoots DuBose in the head – at point-blank range – through the open window.
The car jumps forward and goes down the street about 100 yards until it runs into the cub and stop.Tensing
Tensing runs after the car and yells, “Shots fired! Shots fired!” into his radio.
Showing the video publicly for the first time, Deters called it an “asinine, senseless shooting,” and announced that a grand jury had indicted Tensing for murder.
Deters said the video refutes Tensing’s claim that DuBose pulled away from the stop and dragged him with his car.
DuBose did “nothing violent” toward Tensing, Deters said.
“I think he (Tensing) lost his temper because Mr. DuBose would not get out of his car. He wasn’t dragged. When you see it, you will not believe how quickly he pulled his gun and shot him in the head,” Deters said at a 1 p.m. news conference.
“He was simply, slowly rolling away. That’s it,” Deters said.
“I was senseless. It didn’t have to happen,” Deters said, adding that Tensing should have never stopped DuBose for not having a front license plate.
“It was a chicken-shit stop,” Deters said.
Deters said he feels sorry for DuBose’s family and he showed them the video first. WCPO’s Ally Kraemer reported that DuBose’s family arrived at the prosecutor’s office at noon and and left shortly before the.news conference.
Dreading what it might show, the community had braced itself for the release of the body cam video, especially after statements by two men who had seen it.
“It’s not good, ” Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell declared Monday. On Tuesday, Tensing’s attorney. Stew Mathews, said he expected an indictment based on his viewing
According to the police incident report, Tensing said DuBose was dragging him with his car and Tensing feared he would be run over when he fired a single shot that killed DuBose.
Another UC officer responding to the scene, Phillip Kidd, backed up Tensing’s account, saying he witnessed DuBose’s 1998 Honda Accord dragging Tensing and Tensing firing one shot, according to the report.
But DuBose’s family and supporters disputed the police account and demanded to see Tensing’s video. WCPO and other media outlets sued Deters to release the video, but Deters had refused, saying the video could taint the ongoing investigation.
All along, Deters said he would release the video after the grand jury saw it and decided whether or not to indict Tensing.
After DuBose was buried Tuesday. his sister repeated the family’s call to see the video.
“I’m so upset about them not letting us see the video,” Terina DuBose Allen said. “My brother wasn’t violent. He never resisted arrest. I have to assume the cop killed my brother. If they don’t want me to believe that, then show us the video.”