INDIANAPOLIS — One day after attorneys representing a man who was shot by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Officers sent a tort claim notice, IMPD has released body cam video from the officers involved in that shooting.
Anthony Maclin, 24, was sleeping in a rental car in the driveway at his grandmother’s home in the 3600 block of North Oxford Street on December 31, 2022 when he was shot by IMPD officers.
According to the original 911 call, a woman called to report a car that may have still been running in her driveway.
"I clicked the porch light off and on and nobody came out, and I don't wanna go out to see who's out there," the caller tells a dispatcher. "I don't know. I don't know if it's one of my kids; I don't know. Nobody is getting out."
Officers responded and found a man, later identified as Anthony Maclin, was asleep with a handgun in his lap.
"He's got a gun right on his lap," an officer is heard saying in the body camera video.
You can also hear an officer asking another person if they see it and they respond "yes, I see it." It is unclear who is speaking.
The video shows officers talking outside the car and knocking on the door before yelling "police" and "hands up."
"Alright, let's wake him up ... if he draws on that gun or does anything, yell," one officer is heard saying before the shots were fired.
"As [Maclin] awoke, he began to move and officers discharged their firearms," IMPD says in the video.
Three officers fired their weapons. After the shooting, officers order Maclin to get out of the car and get on the ground.
After Maclin is on the ground and being tended to by officers, the grandmother appears and says "I'm so sorry baby" and asks why he didn't come in the house. Maclin responds that he didn't want to wake anyone up.
During a news conference Monday, Maclin’s attorneys claim he underwent six surgeries from the injuries over the course of 17 days and will be unable to work for at least three months.
"I am in a lot of pain. I mean a lot of pain. It's hard to sleep. It's hard to eat certain foods. My breathing is bad," Maclin said Monday. "Hopefully, I will recover and have a good recovery. I am just not sure how things will be."
Maclin's attorneys and the family are calling for:
- IMPD to release the unedited officer body cam footage of this incident
- IMPD to terminate the employment of officers Chandler, Riley and Gregory
- The Marion County Prosecutor to criminally charge all 3 officers for their criminal actions
"I never would have expected anything like that," Maclin's grandmother said. "The gunshots, it was just so many, so many."
On Tuesday, attorney Stephen Wagner released the following statement on behalf of Maclin:
The video footage released today confirms the officers had no plan whatsoever before surrounding the car with their guns drawn. Why not use other, safer methods to wake him from a distance? As a result of this lack of planning and communication, when they woke Anthony and he moved—something anyone would do when startled awake—all three officers panicked and started shouting at the same time from various positions around the car. One or more officers screamed, “Police” while another officer yelled, “Hands! Hands!” Rather than simply backing away and taking cover, the officers then opened fire for seven full seconds, firing dozens of rounds into the car.
What is more significant is what is not in the video. You never hear an officer yell, “Drop the gun!” When Anthony turns toward the officers and appears to raise his right arm slightly—when one officer was commanding him to raise his hands—you do not see a gun in his right hand. You certainly do not see him pointing a gun at the officers. When the gun was found after the shooting, it was in the driver’s seat where it would be expected to be found if the gun remained in Anthony’s lap during the shooting—not in the passenger seat where the IMPD video implies he was reaching toward with the gun. In the moments after the shooting, not one officer mentions that Anthony pointed a gun at them, even when Anthony moans, “Why did you guys shoot?” Likewise, after the shooting none of the officers used their police radio to report that Anthony threatened them with a gun before they opened fire. Instead, the officers’ actions right after the shooting are much more consistent with them feeling guilty because they realized they just needlessly and recklessly shot a man who was doing nothing wrong.
You can watch the full video below.
Warning: The video below contains violent content and may be disturbing to some viewers.
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