Two police officers supported the apparently false narrative given by University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing to justify the fatal shooting of unarmed Black motorist Sam DuBose.
Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschmidt have both now been placed on leave. The decision comes after the release of two new videos contradicting all three officers’ original accounts.
On Wednesday, authorities charged Tensing with murdering DuBose following the release of video footage from his body camera that seemed to contradict the officer’s account that he shot him in self-defense after being dragged by DuBose’s car.
Stewart Mathews, who is representing Tensing, said the charges were unwarranted. He also stated that Tensing was knocked to the ground, dragged and “feared for his life.”
Kidd’s body camera footage was also released.
In Kidd’s video, he can be seen chasing after DuBose’s car alongside Tensing after he is shot. After the chase you can hear Tensing say, “I thought he was going to run me over. He was dragging me.”
Kidd replies, “Yeah, I saw that.”
At the 3:30 minute mark in the above video, Tensing states, “He was dragging me, man…I just got my hand and my arm caught.” Again, Kidd replies “I saw that.” Kidd then curses and asks Tensing “What was he reaching for?” Tensing replies “He kept reaching around. I told him to step out of the car. He couldn’t produce a license.”
Tensing then says “I almost got ran over” to which Kidd responds “don’t—don’t say anything,” before cursing again.
Later on in the footage another officer asks Kidd if he saw Tensing being dragged and he says “Yes.”
Kidd also backed up Tensing’s account in the official police report of the incident. Lindenschmidt did not offer solid support with the report stating that it was “unclear how much of this incident [officer in training] Lindenschmidt witnessed.”
But Lindenschmidt’s body cam video shows him supporting the narrative as well.
After catching up to Tensing following the shooting, Lindenschmidt asked “What’d he pull on you?” Tensing doesn’t answer, so he poses the question again to which Tensing responds, “He didn’t reach for anything.”
At the 4:00 minute mark, you can hear Lindenschmidt telling another officer the following: “He had a traffic stop, the guy took off from him. The officer got caught in his car, because the guy reached for something—he thought—and so he grabbed onto the car. “Our officer went down, he got tangled in the car, drew his gun and fired.”
But Lindenschmidt describes the shooting accurately, although he said that Tensing fired before the car went out of control.
“I was right behind him. He fired from right here and the guy took off,” Lindenschmidt told the other officer.
Tensing has pleaded not guilty in the incident.
Read the rest at Slate.
