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Unarmed Virginia Black man shot by sheriff's deputy while on 911 call

25 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

Virginia state police are investigating reports that an unarmed Black man was shot by a sheriff's deputy who mistook his cordless house phone for a gun. The deputy had earlier given him a ride home, authorities said.

Driving the news: Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office released video late Friday of the shooting of Isaiah Brown, 32, who's in critical condition in a hospital with 10 bullet wounds following the shooting early Wednesday.

Zoom in: Sheriff Roger Harris released body camera footage and a 911 call from Brown at a news conference confirming that the unnamed deputy had been placed on administrative leave.

  • During the call, a man identified as Brown can be heard threatening to kill his brother and saying "give me the gun" after he won't let him in to retrieve his car keys. He tells the dispatcher several times he does not have a gun.
  • The deputy who gave Brown a ride home some 45 minutes earlier after his car broke down responds to the call as a "domestic incident."
  • The deputy can be heard saying "he's got a gun to his head" before telling him to drop it and stop walking toward him. Gunshots can be heard ringing out.

What they're saying: Brown’s lawyer, David Haynes, said in a statement to news outlets, "The officer mistook a cordless house phone for a gun.

  • "There is no indication that Isaiah did anything other than comply with dispatch’s orders and raised his hands with the phone in his hand as instructed."

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.