GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — When Daevionne Smith pulled up to a home on Fisk Street for his interview with Fox 17 on Monday afternoon, he stepped out of a car filled with other people.
He said that’s how it’s been getting around town since the GRPD accidental discharge incident on December 9, 2021.
“I’m in fear for my life every day,” Smith told Fox 17. “Every day I walk outside the house and I don’t know if it’s somebody on the side of the house waiting for me again. Like, I’m scared. I’ve actually hired a security team to transport me from place to place.”
It’s one of the changes he’s made since the incident. He’s even sold his car that was involved in the incident. Now, he has questions regarding the body camera video that GRPD released last week.
“It’s a cover-up,” Smith said about the video. “It’s them trying to protect themselves. It’s not taking responsibility.”
Back on Thursday, December 9, 2021, Smith said he was visiting his father on Cass and Sycamore streets when GRPD surrounded his home. When he stepped outside, police surrounded him.
“You did no police work before you decided to launch this big barricade around the home for a car that actually was not even the car that you were looking for or the subjects that you were looking for,” said Smith’s cousin Tawanna Gordon.
“This can be a trainable moment”
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) February 8, 2022
Daevionne Smith, Tawanna Gordon - fam of Breonna Taylor - says accidental discharge can be training moment for GRPD. Their gun went off near Smith on 12/9/21.
Family says bodycam was edited. Prosecutor says ‘no evidence of tampering.’ // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/vyzCYyV87x
GRPD said that night they were looking for a stolen vehicle that turned out not to be Smith’s. However, after they surrounded him, a shot went off.
On January 21, officer Greg Bauer was charged with a misdemeanor. On February 3, the body camera video was released.
“On the ground,” Officer Bauer said in the video.
“Oh God,” said Smith.
“That was me,” said Officer Bauer.
“Why did you shoot sir?” Smith said.
“I tripped,” Officer Bauer replied.
Smith questioned why the trip wasn’t shown in the video. He said the video started 10-20 seconds late.
“Why did the recording pick up after the shot was going and I had already was laid down?” Smith said. “It was a process to that and that’s what they not showing. You know, what led up to this. How did y’all come up and aim and shoot and not verify the car but y’all set a perimeter up, but y’all didn’t verify the car? Y’all didn’t hit the plates?”
Gordon said the family has questions as well. She believes the whole time Smith was in the house, police could’ve gotten the VIN number off of the car and quickly verified if it was stolen or not.
“For transparency in our city, we need to see the entire video not what you want to show the city,” Gordon said while sitting next to Smith. “Right now with so much unrest in this country regarding profiling, Black profiling especially, and policing, and then to have his situation happen just I mean within a couple years of Breonna Taylor, our cousin, so we’re starting to wonder are we a targeted family.”
In March 2020, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by Lousiville police during a botched raid at her home. Since then she said the family has been seeking answers in that case. Now, they’re seeking answer’s in Smith’s case.
“You need to show us the whole video,” Gordon said. “We need to see the entire video. Don’t show us a portion of the video that excuses the responsibility of that officer in your department.”
FOX 17 reached out to Prosecutor Chris Becker’s office. He said over the phone “I have no evidence that there is any tampering or editing of any of the bodycam footage that we reviewed in this case.”
Smith and Gordon believe this can be a teachable moment for the police, and this could lead to better training. In the meantime, they’re hoping to see everything of what happened.
“It was all cool when Chris Becker came out and said ‘We charged them. We reviewed the tape. It was a fall. It was slope.’ Ok, I was willing to accept that,” Smith said. “But when you come and show the video to the public and to me and the only thing I see is me on the ground, I know what happened in between those times.”
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Tuesday February 8, the City of Grand Rapids provided the following statement via email regarding the video:
Official Statement from a City Spokesperson:
“The officer deactivated his body worn camera while driving to the incident and then the camera was reactivated during the incident. The video released to this point was responsive to a very narrow FOIA request. A larger FOIA request, that is still being processed, may include additional video of the incident and will be released as allowed by policy and law. Due to the ongoing internal investigation we will decline to comment further on the specifics of the incident.”
On background:
The videos that were provided were produced for internal purposes and should not be considered complete to all FOIA requests. The video was released as it was responsive to one of the FOIA request and immediately available. The officer did turn off his BWC while on route to the incident. The BWC was then activated again during the incident. This deactivation and activation explains the perceived time gap in the footage. Our FOIA team is still working through processing additional responsive materials from the incident and that will be provided as appropriate.
