Mother of 15-year-old killed by Oklahoma police sues for video

The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was shot to death by Oklahoma City police in November is asking a judge to order the city to “immediately furnish” footage from officers body cameras.

A lawsuit filed on Tuesday argues that the city is violating state law by failing to release the footage of the November 23 shooting of Stavian Rodriguez. The suit contends that the recordings are public records subject to disclosure, The Oklahoman reported.

Attorney Rand Eddy initially sought the recordings in a December 14 letter written on behalf of the boys mother, Cameo Holland. The city, so far, has neither produced the recordings nor said why it wont, according to Eddy.

State law requires law enforcement agencies to make body-worn camera recordings “available for public inspection and copying”, he said.

Rodriguez was shot by officers responding to a reported armed robbery attempt. TV news video appeared to show Rodriguez outside a gas station, dropping a gun. The boy raises his hands, then lowers them before being shot.

“Six weeks seem like more than enough time to provide the video given the nature of this event,” Joey Senat, an associate professor at the Oklahoma State University and an expert on public records law, told The Oklahoman.

Rodriguezs death happened less than three weeks after the killing of a Black man whose family members said was mentally ill, prompting two days of protests over police violence shortly before Christmas.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)