As if the case of Aderrien Murry couldn’t get anymore heartbreaking, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations released bodycam footage showing the 11-year-old boy being shot by a Black police officer.
Murry told ABC’s Good Morning America that he was woken out of his sleep May 20, 2023, to the sound of his mother, Nakala, and the father of one of her kids arguing. Murray said his mother told him to call 911 to report a domestic dispute.
The Bodycam Video
Upon Indianola Police Sgt. Greg Capers’ arrival, he appears to be on the phone with a dispatcher who was communicating with someone inside the house, per the body camera footage. The dispatcher tells Capers he has been given permission to enter the premises, and he then began attempting bust the door down.
Nakala is seen in the video answering the door with her hands raised and then Capers started giving orders to everyone else inside the house to come out with his gun drawn. Nakala previously stated no one else was in the home except her small children and the man in question fled out the back.
“Come out sir. Don’t make us come in,” Capers said as he begins entering the home. “Police! You got any weapons, put em’ down!”
On the right side of the hallway, Murray is seen running out with his hands up. In the milliseconds after he comes into the video’s frame, Capers shoots him in the chest. Murry lets out a heartbreaking scream of both pain and panic.
“Oh my God!” Capers shouted after the shot went off.
“That’s a kid!” Murry’s mother yelled out from the front lawn. Capers then starts calling for medical and Murry runs out the house toward his mother, bending over clutching his chest.
The whole interaction lasted less than two minutes.
The video comes months after a grand jury declined to indict the officer. As for administrative punishment, Capers was suspended without pay upon investigation but reinstated in December, per WJTV. Nakala filed a $5 million excessive force lawsuit alleging the Indianola police department failed to properly train Sgt. Capers.
