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A Colorado teen who was fatally shot by a police officer earlier this month was carrying a pellet gun, not a handgun, police announced Friday as they released body camera footage of the struggle.
Police shot and killed 14-year-old Jor’Dell Richardson, who was Black, on June 1 after chasing him from a suburban Denver store, where he was believed to be involved in an armed robbery with a group of other teens. Aurora police had initially said the teen was armed with a semi-automatic gun, but Chief Art Acevedo corrected that on Friday.
Acevedo said the pellet gun Richardson carried looked like a HK USP 9 mm handgun.
“It is a tragedy because a young man has lost his life,” Acevedo said at a press conference during which body camera footage was released.
Two other 14-year-olds were arrested and charged for the robbery, Acevedo said.
Acevedo said police released the body camera footage Friday because Colorado law requires them to wait 72 hours after the family has viewed it.
What happened that day?
Acevedo said an officer who covers gang-related crime saw a group of teens wearing hoodies and medical face masks headed toward a convenience store. The teens robbed the store of vaping cartridges, police said. Acevedo said at a press conference that Richardson had lifted his short in the convenience store to show the employee the weapon in his waistband.
A few of the teens fled in a stolen minivan, while officers detained another teen who ran. Richardson was also chased by an officer, who tackled him to the ground.
Body camera footage released Friday doesn’t clearly show what happened as Richardson was tackled and the struggle that followed, but an officer can be heard telling him to get on the ground and using expletives.
At one point, Richardson says in the footage, “Stop, please. You got me.”
Officer Roch Gruszeczka then tells Richardson to let go of a gun, warning that he will shoot. Gruszeczka fired one shot into Richardson’s abdomen. Richardson’s movements were obscured in the video, and Acevedo said a focus of the investigation going forward will be where the pellet gun was and whether Richardson ever pointed it at officers.
“I’m sorry. I’m done. Help me. Take me to the hospital. Please,” a wounded Richardson can be heard saying, adding that he couldn’t breathe.
“They made me do it,” Richardson also said. “I didn’t know who they were. They made me do it.”
He lost consciousness shortly after and officers can be seen doing chest compressions until emergency medical services arrived.
Gruszeczka, the officer who shot Richardson, can be heard saying, “God, please be with that kid,” as he walked away afterward.
Acevedo said Friday that officers involved believed the pellet gun was a semiautomatic firearm.
“That is not a toy. As a matter of fact, that is a weapon,” Acevedo said of the pellet gun, adding that it can cause serious injury.
Mother: Richardson was a ‘light’
An attorney for Richardson’s family, Siddhartha Rathod, said the family wasn’t informed it was a pellet gun until shortly before Friday’s press conference and accused police of waiting to correct the record to avoid community outrage. Police should have known it was a pellet gun as soon as they picked it up, Rathod said.
Rathod said Richardson was surrendering when he was shot and it didn’t make sense for him to be reaching for the pellet gun.
A crowd of about 200 people gathered for a rally and march after the body camera footage was released. Richardson’s mother, Laurie Littlejohn, said her son was the “light” of the household.
Police did not “think twice” about her son being a child and “didn’t give him a chance to redeem himself,” she said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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