Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizarro has released video of the March 7, 2012 slaying of 20-year-old, unarmed Wendell Allen (pictured right), by New Orleans police officer Joshua Colclough, 28 (pictured left) and it clearly shows the shooting was unnecessary, reports Fox 8.
“It was clear there was no justification for the shooting,” Cannizzaro said.
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As previously reported by News One, Colclough, a four-year veteran of the NOPD, entered into a home in the middle-class Gentilly section of New Orleans, allegedly with a search warrant for a marijuana investigation that did not involve Allen.
According to an internal police investigation, the officers knocked on the door of the home, but no one answered, forcing them to kick it in. As they fanned throughout the house, other officers claim they heard a single shot.
Allen, who was “unarmed, shirtless and wearing jeans and sneakers,” had been shot once in the chest by Colclough.
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According to Coroner Frank Minyard, the bullet penetrated the lungs, heart and aorta of the 6’3, former Frederick Douglass High School basketball star, who fell to the floor and died “almost instantly.”
Five children were in the home at the time of the shooting.
Colclough was charged with manslaughter for the fatal shooting but claimed that racial tensions in New Orleans were too high for him to receive a fair trial.
He is currently serving a 4-year sentence and has apologized publicly to Allen’s mother.
Read more from Fox 8 below:
“It was a two-story dwelling. The officers entered the house with a battering ram. They actually knocked down the door and entered the house,” said Cannizzaro.
On the tape you can hear the sounds of the battering ram and screams of people, including children, in the home.
“The officers obtained a search warrant to search the premises where Wendell Allen and two others were located,” he said.
The shaky camera shows the stairs of the home, but Allen is not visible. NOPD Officer Josh Colclough was on the stairs. The DA explains what happened next.
“Wendell Allen appears from behind the partition. He appears at the top of the stairwell. Officer Colclough takes his gun and fires one shot striking Mr. Allen in the chest.”
The sound of the shot on the tape is clear. “That bullet causes death,” the DA tells us.
There is an expletive heard on the tape after the gun is fired.
See video below — TRIGGER WARNING: Gun violence; Police brutality:
Click here to read more on Allen’s murder.
DA Releases Video Of Wendell Allen’s Murder By Cop [VIDEO] was originally published on newsone.com
