US cop kills Black man holding marker pen, mistaking it for a knife

The Denver Police Department on Monday (Aug 13) posted a video of an incident that took place on August 5 where a police officer shot dead a Black man, who she thought was armed with a knife. Later, to their surprise, the officers found out the deceased was holding only a black marker pen.

“This is a tremendous tragedy,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said during the briefing on Monday.

Denver Police Cmdr. Matt Clark said in a press conference on Monday (August 14) that the department had received a call from someone who had reported an incident related to domestic violence, involving Cole, 36, his wife and his teenage son, stating that a man “had possibly pushed his wife, who was in a wheelchair, out of the chair and onto the ground.”

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Clark then said that the caller informed that she hadn't seen any weapons and also did not know if the woman was wounded, but provided police with a description of the man, who according to her was “possibly under the influence of alcohol.”

What did the footage reveal?

A woman can be seen sitting on the street next to a wheelchair as per the body camera footage of the incident released by the police. “Don’t, don’t pull your gun out on my husband, please,” she says.

In the footage, Cole can be heard saying “Let’s go” to an officer who calls him by his first name. The officer then tries to hit Cole with a stun gun. He moves swiftly around a car that is parked towards the other officer and raises his hands to his chest level, but the thing that he holds in his hand is unclear in the video.

According to the police, the female officer, who was standing right behind the man “observed him holding an object in his right hand that she believed to be a knife. The officer described observing the subject moving the object back and forth from his back area to his front holding it in a threatening manner.”

“You can see in the video that when she finally deploys her duty weapon, the person is so close to her that the view of the young child and other person is not even clear to her,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said. “Certainly that was a consideration, but it was just there was not much time to act before she was overrun by that individual.”

As per news agency AP reports, the Denver District Attorney’s Office will be provided with the results of the probe being conducted into this matter which will further determine if the officer will face any criminal charges. After that, the police will conduct an investigation to find out if the policies of the department were abided by.

(With inputs from agencies)

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