Civil Liberties

Video Released in Fatal Police Shooting in Schenectady, Was Ruled Justified

Gun was pulled on cops off-camera and recovered some distance from the body; "why the fuck did you do that?" heard being asked by one cop

|

Nineteen months after three police officers shot and killed Luis Rivera, Mayor Gary McCarthy on Thursday released videos of the deadly encounter for which the cops were ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

Dramatic footage of the Aug. 12, 2011 death on a city street is captured on a police dashboard camera that also provides a soundtrack to the frantic and profanity-laced reaction from the police and onlookers, including Rivera's sister, after 14 shots were fired at the intersection of State Street and Grove Place. The recordings from cameras in several police cars and also from street surveillance cameras were obtained by the Times Union as the result of an appeal to McCarthy after the newspaper's Freedom of Information Law request was denied on the grounds that the material was considered part of a personnel matter.