ORLANDO, Fla. – Several body camera videos released Wednesday morning show the moments leading up to an Orlando police officer fatally shooting a 26-year-old man in downtown just over a week ago.
An officer shot and killed Derek Diaz, who was in a car near Jefferson Street and Orange Avenue.
According to Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith, officers were proactively patrolling the area, calling it a hotspot for criminal activity, and believed that Diaz was involved in drug activity. Police said that Diaz disobeyed commands of officers and one of them shot him because he made a “quick movement” as if to retrieve a firearm. Diaz was pronounced dead at a hospital.
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Body camera video from the officer who fired his gun shows him approach a vehicle, which Diaz was sitting in, along with two other officers.
The officer asks Diaz to turn off the car. He is seen holding his phone and another item in his hands before the officer asks him to put both hands on the steering wheel.
“My bad, my bad,” Diaz says in the video as he puts his hands on the wheel.
“Don’t move,” the officer is heard on the video saying after.
Video shows the officer then opening the door and telling Diaz to put his hands on the steering wheel again. Diaz is seen in the video with one hand in the air while opening the center console of the vehicle.
“Put your hands on the steering wheel, put your hands on the steering wheel,” the officer yells before gunshots are heard in the video.
The officers move away from the vehicle.
“Did you guys shoot?” one officer is heard asking in the video.
“Yeah, I did,” another officer said.
The videos shows the officers then return to the vehicle to pull him out of the vehicle and begin administering CPR.
[Video below contains graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.]
No gun was found in the vehicle, but police said drugs were recovered in the investigation.
Smith released a statement on the release of the body camera video that said in part, “We understand the need for answers. Maintaining the integrity of the investigation process is also needed so that the facts are provided fairly and transparently. An investigation not only involves body-worn camera video of the incident but also includes the collection of witness testimony, evidence, and other materials.”
(2/3) Statement from Police Chief Eric D. Smith ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/coMP6FWYni
— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) July 12, 2023
The family of Diaz and their attorneys Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson have been calling for the release of the body camera video recorded in the shooting.
“I never understand why, when the taxpayers pay all of this money for bodycam videos for this very instant — for this very instant, to be able to see what happened — why police come up with so many excuses and why we accept them when we all know the very purpose we have bodycam videos is for transparency,” Crump said during a news conference on Saturday.
Sonja Nava, the mother of Diaz’s daughter, told News 6 that the entire family is heartbroken and was still being kept in the dark.
“All we know is what we’ve seen on the news. They haven’t said anything. We don’t know, like, what happened. We don’t like how many times they shot him. We don’t know where they shot him. We don’t know how he died, like if he suffered. We don’t know anything,” Nava previously said.
The officer who opened fire is on administrative leave pending a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation.
The Orlando Police Department said a senior member of the chief’s command staff met with the family Wednesday prior to the public release of the bodycam videos to show them the footage.
Nava said the family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.
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