Part of 911 tape released in wheelchair shooting

Jessica Masulli Reyes and Jenna Pizzi | The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Police kill man in wheelchair, mom disputes their story The mother of a wheelchair bound man who was killed by police describes seeing her son's death in a video on YouTube and Facebook. Phyllis McDole disputes the notion that her son, Jeremy McDole was armed.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Investigators from the Delaware Department of Justice and Wilmington police are continuing to piece together what led four officers — three white and one Hispanic — to shoot and kill a black man in a wheelchair Wednesday.

City police say Jeremy “Bam” McDole was armed and reaching for a gun when the officers opened fire, but McDole’s family has denied he had a gun, pointing to a cellphone video posted to YouTube where one is not visible.

McDole, 28, was killed after the four officers shot him several times. City officials have not identified the officers, but confirmed their races on Friday. All remain on administrative leave.

Late Friday, police released a portion of the 911 call. In it, a woman says a man shot himself and they need to get an ambulance to an AutoZone parking lot.

Police spokeswoman Andrea Janvier said the remainder of the call will not be released at this time.

The female caller says to “send (police) quick.” She repeatedly says McDole, who is not yet identified, is moving but that he shot himself and still has a gun.

“Please get the cops here,” the woman in the 911 audio says.

She says she doesn’t know where his weapon is but she repeatedly asks for police response, saying he has a weapon in his hand. She says he shot himself and the emergency dispatcher asks her to move back from the situation.

At least six investigators from Attorney General Matt Denn’s office were at the scene Friday.

As the investigators searched, a makeshift memorial stood on the spot of the shooting, marked by yellow cones that have “bam” and “rip” scrawled on them.

Janvier declined Friday to answer questions, including ones about the number of shots fired, what preceded what is seen on the video, and the officers’ names.

Robert Bovell, a Hilltop resident who has been with the family since the shooting, said he and McDole’s family are upset that city police haven’t given more details.

“We are all unhappy,” Bovell said. “We just want to examine the facts of what happened.”

Much of the public information about the shooting has come from a cellphone video that shows one officer pointing a shotgun at McDole, screaming at him to “drop the gun.” Other officers are later heard screaming, “Hands up.”

McDole, who is paralyzed from the waist down, fidgets, moving his legs with his hands and rubbing his knees with both hands, and tries to raise himself out of the wheelchair. He is then seen sliding his hand up his thigh and toward his waist as officers open fire.

Police have said they responded to a 911 call at 3 p.m. Wednesday about a man with a self-inflicted wound who was armed. The chief said police found a .38-caliber gun at McDole’s side after the shooting.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is conducting its investigation separate from the Wilmington police, as is standard after a police shooting.

Contributing: Esteban Parra of The News Journal