Witnesses: White Cops Shoot Black Man Who Had Hands Up

ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) — A Florida sher­iff called for calm after a 28-year-old unarmed black man in a stolen car was shot and crit­i­cal­ly wound­ed ear­ly on Monday by a white offi­cer, after wit­ness reports that the man had his hands up and amid racial­ly charged protests nation­wide about police violence.

“I ask every­one to not rush to judg­ment and allow the inves­ti­ga­tion to be com­plet­ed,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a news con­fer­ence in Orlando.

Demings, who him­self is African American and was sur­round­ed by six reli­gious lead­ers from the black com­mu­ni­ty, said inves­ti­ga­tors have found some eye­wit­ness accounts that con­flict with that of the offi­cer involved.

Witnesses at the apart­ment com­plex said that the men had their hands up when the deputy opened fire, accord­ing to local media reports.

Cities across the United States have seen major protests in recent days after grand juries declined to indict any­one in the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police offi­cers in New York and Ferguson, Missouri.

After locat­ing a stolen car at an apart­ment com­plex just after mid­night on Monday, Sergeant Robert McCarthy fired three shots, one of which hit Cedric Bartee.

Demings said Bartee failed to com­ply with McCarthy’s com­mands and “made exten­sive furtive move­ments,” mak­ing the deputy fear for his safety.

Bartee under­went surgery and was in sta­ble but crit­i­cal con­di­tion late in the after­noon, the sher­iff said. A sec­ond man in the car was arrest­ed unhurt.

The shoot­ing also comes only a few days after a 32-year-old Latino man was shot and killed in a car by an Orlando detective

inves­ti­gat­ing a bur­glary. Police said the detec­tive opened fire after he saw Alejandro Noël Cordero had a gun.

On Monday Demings said he was try­ing to be trans­par­ent in hold­ing the press con­fer­ence “because of the back­drop of every­thing hap­pen­ing in the coun­try at this time.”

He added: “It’s con­cern­ing to me” how the pub­lic might react.

Bartee had a his­to­ry of arrests on at least 45 charges since 1999, accord­ing to a list pro­vid­ed by the sher­iff, but the deputy was not aware of his back­ground at the time of the shoot­ing, Demings said.

McCarthy has been reas­signed to admin­is­tra­tive duties for at least a week, and the shoot­ing is being inves­ti­gat­ed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as part of a stan­dard pro­ce­dure. The FDLE is also inves­ti­gat­ing Cordero’s shooting.
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