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Police Body Camera Usage Leads To Murder Charges Being Filed Against Officers Who Killed 6-Year-Old Autistic Boy

By Janice Malcolm
Published on: 05:32 PST, Nov 8, 2015

On Tuesday evening, Jeremy Mardis, a 6-year-old autistic boy, became the youngest person to be killed by police officers since 2015 began. The 2 Louisiana officers responsible for killing the boy and critically wounding his father have since been arrested, and the police have stated that footage from the body camera worn by one of the officers contributed greatly to the decision to file murder charges against the officers.

The tragic death of the 6-year-old occurred at the end of a police chase involving Jeremy’s father, Chris Few. Jeremy was buckled in the front seat of his father’s SUV, and when the police cornered the vehicle on a dead-end street, they opened fire on the vehicle. The young boy was struck by 5 bullets and died at the scene, while his father has been admitted to the hospital in critical condition. The initial story given by the police was full of holes. Claims initially made that Chris Few had a warrant out for his arrest was proven false, and no information about what started the chase has been discovered. However, it was all filmed, though the footage has not been released to the public.

The dark, nighttime chase, the police opening fire on unarmed passengers, the murder of a 6-year-old and his father, shot in the head, is on camera. One of the officers who were present at the scene was wearing a body camera. The body camera is slowly but steadily becoming a required accessory for police officers in the field, and it seems that this family will get justice because of it. Lt. Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. are the two Marksville city marshals that killed the boy while allegedly trying to shoot his father, and now have several lawsuits pending against them. An earlier Inquisitr article states that thus far, the death of Jeremy Mardis will be filed as a second-degree murder charge against the police officers, and the critical shooting of Chris Few will attract an attempted second-degree murder charge.

Chris Few’s fiancée, who was present in another vehicle when the marshals initially approached Few’s SUV, told the Guardian that Few had a had a prior personal conflict with one of the marshals and was afraid.

The rise of the body camera era came following officers shooting and killing 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The conflicting tales that arose after the death of the unarmed African-American sparked civil unrest in the region. The implementation of the body camera was meant to be a method of accountability in exactly such circumstances as Tuesday’s fatal incident. The body camera is a small, pager-sized device clipped onto an officer’s uniform (also comes in the form of glasses cameras) and all across the United States police departments are using the cameras at an increasing rate. Late last year, President Obama announced that $75 million would be spent over a three-year period to ensure that approximately 50,000 body cameras would be distributed to police departments across the country, courtesy of the government. He stated that the reason for the distribution is because “evidence shows that body-worn cameras help strengthen accountability and transparency.”

The belief is that both the police and citizens would benefit from the body-worn cameras, as undisputed evidence of all police and civilian encounters would be available, thus preventing reliance on word of mouth statements, and police officers would be protected from false accusations while the public would be protected from police misconduct. Supporters of the body camera induction have plenty of evidence to back up their stance, as well as that of the President. The Atlantic put forth a 2013 experiment conducted in Rialto, California, which showed that officers wearing body cameras were less likely to use unnecessary force and complaints made against the police dropped an astonishing 80 percent.

Late Friday night, Colonel Mike Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police spoke at a news conference, wherein he announced the status of the 4 officers involved in the chase of Chris Few. Two of the officers involved are on administrative leave but are not being charged, while the body camera footage was condemning enough to have Lt. Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. arrested.

“We took some of the body cam footage. [It is] extremely disturbing, and it is partly why we’re here tonight with these charges… I’m not gonna talk about it, but I’m gonna tell you this, it is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen and I will leave it at that.”

CNN reported that as of Saturday evening, Greenhouse and Stafford were being held separately at the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center in Cottonport, while they await prosecution for the murder of Jeremy Mardis and attempted murder of his father, Chris Few.

[Photo Courtesy of BodyCamNews / Twitter]

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