The Sacramento Police Department has a lot of explaining to do.

The two police officers who shot mentally ill homeless man Joseph Mann fourteen times back in July apparently attempted to run him over with their car twice before gunning him down. In the videos that have surfaced of the incident, officers John C. Tennis and Randy R. Lozoya appear to be attempting to strike Mann with their vehicle.

The department’s initial statement regarding the Joseph Mann case was that officers resorted to lethal force only after deescalation tactics failed, but the videos show otherwise. The police chief claimed that the he 51-year-old homeless man had a knife that he raised and was acting “erratically.” The in-car dashcam recording reportedly was only one of four videos that the Sacramento Police Department released last week under pressure from the public and elected officials.

After a couple of efforts to hit Mann with the car had failed, you could hear of total of 18 shots go off in the background, followed by moaning sounds. Just before Mann was shot, an officer could be heard saying “F– this guy, I’m going to hit him,” to which the other officer responds, “OK. Go for it. Go for it.”

In a federal lawsuit filed last month against the city by Mann’s relatives, both officers are named as defendants. Joseph’s older brother Robert says the videos prove that officers overreacted and that there was time to resolve the situation while his brother was still alive. He stated, “[The police] lied flat-out to me. They told me my brother was aggressive, my brother was threatening police officers and he was coming at them. And that they had no time to make any decision other than to shoot my brother.”

 

The videos of Joseph Mann’s murder came shortly before the footage of the Alfred Olango shooting was released. Check out the disturbing videos above.

Source: News Review , Heavy |PHOTOCREDIT: Youtube, Getty, Twitter