Officer’s Bodycam ”Malfunctions” Seconds Before He Shot and Killed a Man

Cassius Methyl
Activist Post

In Salt Lake City, Utah, a man named James Dudley Barker, 42, was shot dead by a police officer last week after offering his routine door-to-door snow-shoveling services.

The altercation was recorded on body-cam footage until it was abruptly cut before the shooting; the cops claim the bodycam was broken at the time the video ceases.

The verbal altercation became physical when the cop appeared to swing at Barker after he got upset at the officer verbally.

After the officer appeared to swing at the man, it looks like James swung back, and then the bodycam footage is cut. All we know past that point is that the cop shot and killed him. The officer, whose name has not been released, was allegedly injured by being struck with a shovel after he took a swing at the man. Evidence to back this up has not been presented to the public.

Ron Lee, the victim’s neighbor, said

I don’t know everything, but I do know James,

and

He looked as good as I’ve ever seen him.

He also described the victim as a “kind” and “normal guy”, with “absolutely no aggressiveness”. The neighbor knew him for years, and stated that James lived in the house next to him for 10 years.

A local news article also quoted the victim’s neighbor Lee,

Lee recalled a time when two trees were cut down in Barker’s yard, and Barker was hesitant for the stump to be removed because he wanted to create something from it. “Instead of just … cutting it down, (he said), Can’t we make something beautiful?”

“I just can’t understand how a man would be shot,” the longtime neighbor of police shooting victim James Barker continued. “As soon as you figure it out, send me a letter.”

Footage of the altercation can be viewed below:

Once again a police officer has escalated a situation from words into violence, from fists and a shovel to firearms, from words to murder in the blink of an eye.

On Saturday afternoon, dozens of protesters mourned the death of James outside the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building.

Please share this with as many people as possible; especially people who are unaware that events like this are occurring so often. 

Related Activist Post Article: 
5 Reasons Police Body Cameras Are a Terrible Idea

Cassius Methyl writes for TheAntiMedia.org, where this first appeared. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to receive their latest articles.