Seattle Police release body cam footage in fatal Aurora Ave North shooting
Jan 3, 2019, 5:05 PM | Updated: Jan 4, 2019, 9:56 am
(Seattle Police Blotter)
(Seattle Police Blotter)
The Seattle Police Department released the body cam footage involving a fatal officer-involved shooting on Aurora Ave North on Monday night.
You can see the video here (warning: graphic content).
The incident began shortly after 5 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2018, when North Precinct patrol officers stopped a driver, later identified as 36-year-old Iosia Faletogo, going north on Aurora Avenue North at North 96th Street.
In the body cam footage, Faletogo runs out of his car across Aurora Avenue North, and is chased by three police officers. He is eventually brought to the ground in the grass off the side of the street.
The footage is blurry at points, but provides multiple angles, including one in slow motion, where it appears as though Faletogo is reaching for his gun on the ground with his right hand.
“You’re going to get shot! You’re going to get [expletive] shot!” one officer loudly repeated. Calls for a TASER are also heard in the background.
During the ensuing scuffle, a single shot was fired by an officer. Officers provided first aid and called for Seattle Fire Department medics. Medics declared Faletogo deceased on the scene.
It’s difficult to be certain, but at the 2:43 mark in the body cam footage, it sounds as though someone, presumably Faletogo, says, “I’m not reaching.”
An ATF trace of Faletogo’s handgun revealed that it was stolen during a 2016 car prowl in Renton. The magazine was fully loaded.
According to SPD, at the time of his death, he was carrying $1,160 in cash, and a vial containing 263 pills with the code for oxycodone stamped on them. The pills later tested positive for fentanyl and acetaminophen.
Faletogo’s car remains in processing, and will be searched pending a warrant.
He was originally pulled over when officers noticed a Department of Licensing flag indicated that he was driving under a suspended license. Officers also observed Faletogo making an improper lane change.
Earlier on Thursday, Faletogo’s family expressed their own disbelief.
“Nothing can justify his life being taken away from us,” an unnamed family member told KIRO 7. “What these police did to him, who made them God? Who made them God, that they can take somebody’s life like that?”
The officer involved in the shooting is currently on paid administrative leave, and was hired by the department in September 2015.
