Stephenson King Jr.’s family members say they want to see the body camera footage of his death.
The 39-year-old man was shot and killed by a Boston police officer in Roxbury last month during a suspected carjacking.
Prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is representing King Jr.’s family. Crump said the footage must be damning given how quickly District Attorney Kevin Hayden charged the officer with manslaughter.
“We believe that video will reveal very disturbing actions,” Crump said.
King Jr.’s father said he wants to see the footage.
“I want to see his face and what really happened,” King Sr. said.
Crump told GBH News that the district attorney’s office told him that the footage would be made available to King’s family after the grand jury is convened.
“They didn’t give us anything definitive,” Crump said. “They said it sometimes would take weeks, sometimes it could take months.”
The Suffolk County district attorney’s office has not released the body camera footage to the public, city leaders or the civilian police oversight body.
Local advocates have compared King’s death to George Floyd’s murder in 2020. But some say King’s death hasn’t prompted the same level of outcry because the public hasn’t seen body camera footage.
Hayden, as the district attorney, has the final say in death investigation cases and said the video would not be released before trial.
The Suffolk County district attorney’s office told GBH News that King was attempting to leave the scene when Boston police officer Nicholas O’Malley shot him three times. No weapon was found on King or in the vehicle.
Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell has been urging for the release of the footage and called for clearer understanding of the police department’s protocol in releasing body camera footage.
“A man died and we have video. We should be able to see that video,” Worrell said Thursday.
Worrell joined Crump and King’s family, along with other local leaders and clergy, for a press conference at the Grant AME Church in Roxbury on Thursday. Crump called for justice for the unarmed Black man who was killed by a white Boston police officer.
“We want to make sure that the police are not allowed to operate with impunity,” he said. “We refuse to let them sweep this under the rug. We refuse to let them act as if Stephenson’s life did not matter.”
King Sr. spoke during the news conference and said that the system failed his son. King Jr. had a history of mental health issues, his father said, and was paranoid in the last few months of his life.
On the day that he was killed, King Sr. said his son asked him to call 911 for medical attention.
“He said, ‘Dad, you need to call the ambulance, I cannot move,’” King Sr. said. “They put him on the stretcher and took him downstairs.
“I watched them leave,” he said. “That’s the last time I saw my son.”
For Crump, representing King’s family follows a long history of high-profile civil rights cases.
The first case that brought him to the national spotlight was his work with the family of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012.
Since then, he’s taken on other prominent cases, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown. Representing the family of George Floyd, Crump helped the family settle a wrongful death lawsuit with the city of Minneapolis for $27 million. The officer involved, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder.
Announcing that he would take the case on Monday, Crump said in a statement, “This family deserves the full truth, real accountability, and justice that is not delayed or denied. We will not stop fighting until they get it.”
