MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Dashcam videos showing police officers in Gardena, a city in the southwestern region of Los Angeles County, California fatally shooting an unarmed man and injuring another in a 2013 incident were made public on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The videos depict the events of 2013, when three Gardena police officers opened fire on 34-year-old Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, who was unarmed, because he had put his arms down to his waist, and they thought he would take the gun.
The release of the videos was ordered by a federal judge after the city has settled a lawsuit over the shooting worth $4.7 million with the families of Zeferino and the second man, who was wounded, hoping the videos would remain "under seal," the paper said.
US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson has argued that the videos should be made public, as they can be kept under seal only in special cases.
"However, [the] defendants' argument backfires here — the fact that they spent the city's money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public's interest in seeing the videos," Wilson was quoted by the paper as saying.
"Moreover, while the videos are potentially upsetting and disturbing because of the events they depict, they are not overly gory or graphic in a way that would make them a vehicle for improper purposes," he added.
The officers — Christopher Mendez, Christopher Sanderson and Matthew Toda — have not been charged with the shooting.
The US media reports suggested that an increased interest in the videos was caused by the scrutiny of police officers shooting unarmed men, including African-Americans, nationwide.
