On May 30, a 24-year-old man was shot in the head during a George Floyd protest in Los Angeles. Now, the body cam footage has been released.
The nearly seven-minute video captured victim CJ Montano standing in the middle of the street with his hands up. Shortly after, he drops to the ground after being shot in his dome. In the footage, police were heard screaming “less lethal” and “leave the area.”
Following the shooting, LAPD Captain Gisselle Espinoza described the incident as an “unintentional head strike.” He added, “the circumstances of how Montano was struck, and which officer fired the less-lethal projectile that struck Montano, is still under investigation.”
George Floyd’s family attorney Benjamin Crump also spoke out on the viral video. In a post to Twitter, the lawyer described the situation as unbelievable. “Unreal!! Even though LAPD says this was an ‘unintentional head strike,’ CJ Montano suffered serious bleeding in his brain because of this incident. Less-lethal tactics can still cause severe injuries and even death!” he wrote.
During a conversation with the Los Angeles Times, Montano, who suffered serious bleeding in his brain, explained that he did not pose a threat to officers. “It just feels like it was all intentional, and it makes me feel sick,” he said to the outlet.
As REVOLT readers might recall, Floyd’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the city of Minneapolis and a handful of police officers last month. “It was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department on the neck of George Floyd that killed him,” Crump said. “The city of Minneapolis has a history of policies and procedures and deliberate indifference when it comes to the treatment of arrestees, especially Black men, that cries out for training and discipline.”
Take a look at the heartbreaking video below.