The footage offers new details on Saturday’s police killing of 23-year-old Robert Adams, who family says may have been unaware of law enforcement’s presence until they exited an unmarked car with guns drawn.
“The way they pulled up was like some gang members about to do a drive-by,” his father, Robert Adams Sr., told HuffPost. “They never rolled down the window and said, ‘This is the police.’ All we can see is that they jumped out the car and just started immediately opening fire.”
The San Bernardino Police Department said it received a call from a “citizen informant” on July 16 saying that a “Black male armed with a gun was in the parking lot” of what the authorities said was an illegal online gambling business.
According to police, two officers who were conducting “surveillance” in the area went to the parking lot and saw Adams holding a gun in his hand. Police said they recovered a loaded gun on the scene, but his mother disputes that he was armed.
Tamika Deavila King, Adams’ mother, told HuffPost that he was on the phone with her talking about his best friend getting a new car. King said her son was holding a cellphone, not a gun, when police arrived.
“Police in San Bernardino, CA, fatally shot 23-year-old Robert Adams execution-style! It’s reported Robert didn’t know there were police in the unmarked car before he ran for his life. We need a full investigation into this horrific execution!” Crump tweeted.
Goodman, the police chief, said the area Adams was in was known for crime and that he was a suspect for a previous robbery. It is unclear if officers knew at that time that Adams was a suspect.
Adams’ family has demanded more police accountability and questioned the tactics of the officers involved. His father told HuffPost that police shot his son in the back and the bullet also went through his arm.
King called for Goodman to be removed as police chief. She told HuffPost she wants the officers involved in killing her son stripped over their badges and criminally charged, with the shooter charged for murder.
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