Media shown videos of 2 Oakland police-involved deaths of suspects

Police Chief Sean Whent speaks to media members after they were shown body-cam videos of two incidents. Police Chief Sean Whent speaks to media members after they were shown body-cam videos of two incidents. Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Media shown videos of 2 Oakland police-involved deaths of suspects 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

In a highly unusual move, Oakland police showed body-camera footage to reporters Wednesday from an incident in which officers fatally shot a carjacking suspect, saying it supported their account of the killing and would dispel “misinformation” about how the man died.

Police also released footage from a second incident in which a man being pursued by officers died after becoming wedged in a space between two buildings. Police officials gave the same reason for showing the footage — that false rumors about the man’s death were spreading on social media and among critics of police.

The footage, which police showed to reporters under the stipulation that it not be recorded or released to the public, appeared to back up authorities’ accounts of encounters that prompted protests in the wake of controversial police shootings around the nation.

‘Uncharted waters’

“We’re in uncharted waters,” Police Chief Sean Whent said of showing the officer-involved death videos to the media. “We want to release information because the public has the right to know, but we have to balance that with maintaining the integrity of our investigations.”

Whent said the decision to play the videos was made to correct “misinformation” spread on social media and by protesters.

Police showed two videos that captured the Aug. 12 fatal shooting of 24-year-old Nate Wilks on Martin Luther King Jr. Way near 27th Street. The footage was from the body cameras of two of the three officers involved, and each started from when they arrived on scene and ran until moments after the suspect was shot.

The shaky and choppy videos showed officers running after Wilks after he crashed a car and allegedly tried to carjack another vehicle at 2:40 p.m. The footage shows Wilks, holding a 9mm handgun in his left hand, racing down the sidewalk with three officers running after him. One of the officers is seen directly behind Wilks, while the other two are running alongside him on the street.

Suddenly Wilks stops, turns around and begins to approach the officer on the sidewalk.

“Get on the ground! Drop it! Drop the gun! Drop the gun!” an officer is heard yelling.

But Wilks continues to charge toward the officer on the sidewalk, still holding the gun in his hand. When he gets within feet of the officer on the sidewalk, all three officers open fire, striking Wilks multiple times.

The footage briefly loses sight of Wilks, but then shows him splayed in the doorway of a business, his feet propped against a metal screen door.

“He’s advancing on the officer, armed with a gun in his hand,” homicide Lt. Roland Holmgren said while playing the video.

Although some witnesses said Wilks raised the gun at the officers, the videos do not show him making such a move.

“Remember, a gun can be fired from any position,” Holmgren said.

Whent said the video had been played for Wilks’ family, including his mother, but he and Holmgren declined to comment on their reaction.

Wilks’ family could not immediately be reached for comment.

Death of Richard Linyard

A second set of videos, which were edited for time reasons, showed the July 19 police pursuit of 23-year-old Richard Linyard, who died after getting wedged between two buildings. Police officials used the footage to dispute rumors on social media that Linyard’s death was the result of force by officers.

That incident unfolded when police pulled over Linyard — a musician who rapped under the name Afrikan Richie — on the 1300 block of 65th Avenue around 5:45 p.m.

A police body-camera video shows an officer talking to Linyard outside his car. Linyard then takes off running.

“Come back or I’ll tase you,” the officer is heard yelling at Linyard, threatening to use a Taser stun gun on him.

The footage shows Linyard ignoring the orders and jumping over a fence in an industrial area and disappearing.

Another set of videos shows officers setting up a perimeter and walking along corrugated-metal rooftops searching for Linyard. One of the officers eventually looks down and sees Linyard wedged between two buildings in a space about 11 inches wide.

After a few moment, an officer is heard saying, “He’s not moving. It looks like he’s out.”

Footage also shows officers going down to the ground, ripping down a cedar fence to get a closer look at the wedged suspect. “He looks out. He looks not pale but gray,” one officer says.

The police requested medical help for Linyard a minute after locating him and one officer is heard saying, “Can I get somebody thinner here?”

Once they pulled Linyard out, officers started to perform CPR on Linyard, who later died. The Alameda County coroner has yet to release a cause for Linyard’s death.

“There were no signs of trauma, and he only had a few scrapes from being wedged in the building,” Holmgren said.

Holmgren said police had asked Linyard’s mother if she wanted to view the videos. She did not, he said.

Linyard had been wanted on a $10,000 warrant and had about a pound of marijuana in his car, police said.

Whent said that once the investigations in both cases are complete, the videos shown Wednesday will be released to the public.

There have been five officer-involved shootings this year in Oakland, three of which have resulted in suspects’ deaths. Whent said body-camera video of the two other fatal shootings would not be released or screened for the media because they were not the subject of public dispute.

Watchdogs are wary

The selective release of body-camera footage has many police watchdogs questioning how the devices are being used. Oakland began equipping officers with cameras in 2010, but this is the first time the Police Department has released footage of a fatal police shooting.

Law enforcement agencies around the country have been implementing body cameras for officers in an effort to cut down on police brutality as well as false accusations from people in police interactions.

Critics say police are disclosing the videos only when they serve the department and bolster their versions of events.

Cat Brooks, an Oakland activist with the Anti-Police Terror Project, has been wary of police accounts of the Wilks shooting. She was pleased to learn the footage had been shown to Wilks’ mother.

“This means the pressure from our community is working and shifting the way this plays out in our city,” she said.

“Were it not for community pressure, that would not have happened,” she added. “But it doesn’t alter the fact that the community is upset when the police kill people. It doesn’t alter the fact that black people are killed in the street.” Wilks and Linyard were African American.

Brooks said police should show body-camera footage to slain suspects’ families as standard procedure.

"Oakland can be a national model for how we move this forward — both for law enforcement and for community members that are tired of being hunted down and killed in the street,” she said.

A call for transparency

Civil rights attorney John Burris said the police should have shown the videos released Wednesday to the wider public, not just reporters.

“I don’t think there should be selective viewing just to the media,” Burris said. “The public should have the opportunity to make their own judgments. They should not just be released when the shootings from a police point of view are justifiable.”

He added, “The best way to handle it is to not be selective. You show them all. ‘Transparency’ is the operative word. Not just for some cases, but for all cases.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky

Oakland police video screening

Shown: Aug. 12 shooting of Nate Wilks and July 19 death of Richard Linyard

Not shown: June 8 shooting of Demouria Hogg and Aug. 3 shooting of Antonio Clements