The San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who killed a 15-year-old girl while were engaged in a shootout on a California freeway with her father were not wearing bodycams at the time of the shooting, The San Bernardino Sun reports.
"Such video could have been important evidence in determining how Savannah Graziano, who at the time was believed by Fontana police to have been kidnapped by her father, wound up getting shot as she ran toward deputies from the disabled car along the 15 Freeway in Hesperia while wearing chest armor and a tactical helmet," The Sun's report states.
As The Daily Beast points out, California officials have been changing their story in regards to the shootout, which ended in the deaths of Anthony John Graziano and his daughter, Savannah. Anthony is accused of fatally shooting his wife before fleeing with his daughter.
"Officials initially said Savanah was killed as she ran towards deputies in a tactical vest, then they said it appeared she had joined the shootout," The Daily Beast's report states. "They walked back that claim Friday, saying Savannah appeared to be unarmed. Police have also walked back their initial description of her as an abduction victim, saying she may have willingly escaped with her dad."
Lolita Harper, executive director of the Sheriff Employees Benefit Association, said on Thursday that they desperately want the bodycams that were promised.
“We’ve been asking and pushing for them for a very long time,” Harper said. “I think it’s been overwhelmingly obvious that body-worn cameras are a great start to being able to show various perspectives and for us, we recognize they are a benefit. … Studies have shown they help more than hurt and exonerate more deputies than anything.”
Read the full report over at The San Bernardino Sun.
