Five Oklahoma City police officers were charged with 1st-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager robbery suspect.
Stavian Rodriguez, 15, was shot multiple times after robbing a convenience store on November 23.
The teenager was shot after he dropped a gun and raised his arms in the air outside an Okie Gas Express in Oklahoma City.
The officers were identified by police as Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, John Skuta and Brad Pemberton.
Attorneys for the cops say they opened fire when he refused an order after climbing out of a drive-thru window.
“Show us your hands, sir,” one officer said. “Nobody has to get hurt. Just show us your hands.”
Rodriguez raised his shirt, taking the gun out of his waistband and holding it out by its extended magazine. “Oh, don’t do that,” one officer said, as Rodriguez dropped the gun on the ground.
Rodriguez reached toward his back pocket when cops told him to get on the ground. About a dozen gunshots rang out and Rodriguez is heard moaning.
The shooting of Rodriguez, a white Hispanic, led to protests in Oklahoma City last year and a negligence claim against the city. “How many more?” one protester wrote on a sign held outside a police station Dec. 12.
“No one should be executed because they made ‘furtive movements.’ Our systems are broken and need to be re-imagined and need rebuilding,” Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon wrote on Twitter last year.
