I have been reading tweets regarding the Antonio Martin shooting on December 23, 2014 practically non-stop. I am hungry for information as much as everyone else is at this point.
What I learned is that Antonio Martin pulled out a gun and the officer shot him. So I figure there had to be a little bit more to this story and waited for the news conference to gather some facts.
Unfortunately, I couldn't hear a word from the news conferences as the volume was so low.
This press conference can be heard is you use ear buds or have speakers on your PC.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/222146-4-st-louis-county-chief-police-holds-press-conference-explain-reason-police-shot-killed-antonio-martin/?utm_source=dailynewsletter
* In this press conference, they are looking for the person that was with Antonio Martin. I do hope this man comes forward and speaks with the police. Trust me, the Berkeley community needs to hear from him.
Going solely on the news article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who gave a break down of why the police were called and the time of the shooting.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/berkeley-officer-fatally-shoots-teenager/article_d45db16a-7422-5307-b81d-b45dbdc896ba.html
Now there have been so many tweets indicating that Antonio Martin was still alive and was left bleeding out as no ambulance was called.
I thought, how is that even possible, as the first thing when a person is shot, the officer immediately calls for medical assistance and reports the shooting. This is standard protocol.
There are a couple of Ustream videos where the people were saying that EMS was there, but I still have not been unable to find those videos.
In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it is clearly mentioned that EMS was on the scene and pronounced Antonio Martin deceased.
*EMS was called at 11:22 PM on 12/23/2014. They were the ones that pronounced Antonio Martin deceased before the crowds starting coming.
It took time before the crowds start to collect at the gas station, and my thought is that the people who started gathering missed EMS being on the scene.
Someone did find a sound clip of the officer calling for crowd control at 11:45, as the crowd were getting bigger and becoming unruly to deal with.
I know from past experiences when a person is shot and deceased, the body will remain on the scene for a couple of hours until the Medical Examiner comes to the scene as well as the investigators collecting information before the body is removed and evidence picked up from the scene.
Once the body is ready to be transported to the medical examiner for an autopsy, the body will go in the coroner's van, or station wagon, or any type of vehicle.
People were outraged that Antonio Martin was placed in a mini van. I'm not sure what they wanted him to be transported in, but once the person is dead, an ambulance is normally not used, nor is a funeral limo aka funeral coach used at this time.
Mayor Hoskins speaks to the media.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/berkeley-mayor-were-different-from-ferguson-376744003702
Since there were so many cameras at the gas station, I was hoping that the camera picked up on the incident. The St. Louis County Police Department shared 3 videos from the incident, of which, two of the videos were edited a bit as to not show Antonio Martin being shot and going down out of respect for Antonio's mother.
First video released will show Antonio Martin in darker clothing with a backpack and an unknown person in light pants and a light hat, holding a bag of some sort.
In the above video you can see the two of the standing outside of the store. I'm not sure if the guy with the light pants and hat was talking to the person in the white car. You can see the car door close and the person just remains in the car. This person is a good witness.
There is a man that comes out of the store and walks in the parking lot, of which, appears to be lighting a cigarette. Perhaps he has a car at the pumps, or just stop in for smokes. This person could also be a good witness.
You can see at video marker 19 seconds, people, perhaps both are women pushing a stroller through the parking lot as the guy with the light pants and light hat starts to approach them. This guy is walking with these people as the police car enters the parking lot.
Antonio Martin is walking in front of the white car that is parked, and takes the sidewalk in front of the store. The guy with the light pants and hat walks towards the patrol car, while Antonio is keeping a great distance between him and the cop.
The guy with the light pants and hat remains comfortable and near the cop, and Antonio comes closer, possibly because the cop wanted to talk to him and it appears that Antonio at least got as close as in-between the lights on the patrol car.
Keep in mind, the camera is capturing this from a distance so its hard to tell exactly where Antonio is standing.
The guy with the light pants and hat now moves towards the front of the patrol car in front of the driver's side headlight. For whatever reason the guy with the light pants and hat, now moves a little towards the left of the patrol car and Antonio steps back.
As this is all beginning to go down, a black car pulls into the parking lot and a lady gets out of the car to head into the store. The passenger inside the car gets out but looks inside his car.
As the woman approaches the door of the store, you can see Antonio Martin raise his arm and points at the officer. At this point the shooting happened and the video stopped.
St. Louis County Police Department stopped the video at this point out of respect for Antonio's mother. In any event, at this point of the shooting, the man in the white car is a witness, the woman going into the store is a witness, the passenger in the black car is a witness, the man walking and possibly lighting a cigarette is a witness, and the two people with the stroller are also witnesses.
It appears no one else is in the area at the time of the shooting except these witness, Antonio, the guy with light pants and hat, and the police officer.
In this video it will show the man walking out of the store, possibly lighting a cigarette is walking to what appears to be an large size passenger vehicle of some sort. This angle confirms really no one was there, but the witnesses mentioned earlier.
It seems as though the guy with the light pants and hat knows the people pushing the stroller, as Antonio is closer to the store. The cop's flashlight is moving and at one point the guy with the light pants and hat moves as mentioned earlier.
As the cop takes a step forward, the guy with the light pants and hat takes steps backwards. The posture of the cop seems relaxed as he holds the flashlight in his right hand.
Then you see Antonio Martin start to take steps closer and you see the flashlight getting brighter as Antonio at this point had raised his arm and pointed a gun at the cop.
The guy with the light pants and hat takes off running inside the store. The lady that was at the door of the store, starts running back to her car, and her passenger jumps in the car. The white car is just sitting there as well as that multi-passenger vehicle at the gas pumps.
I have no clue why the woman ran back to her car after the shooting when she would have been safer going into the store.
There are 31 cameras at this gas station, but only three cameras caught the incident. Although many people feel more of these cameras should have caught the shooting and the cops are hiding stuff.
We still can't see Antonio Martin shooting the cop or the cop shooting him as the St. Louis Police Department decided not to show Antonio out of respect for his mother.
However, we see the cop going backwards and falling as his flashlight slides across the parking lot and ends up near the gas pumps. The cop is probably shooting as he falls and then gets up and retreats away from the scene, to protect himself.
We see the guy with the light pants and hat running to the store, the woman running to her car. We can see her passenger was out of the car, but got into the car once shots were fired and the woman jumped back into her car.
This whole incident went down probably a minute, give or take a few seconds.
It appears that Antonio Martin and the guy with the light pants and hat stole from the gas station store. The employee within the store had called 911. Now this information is coming from the news article posted above. I would prefer to wait until I hear the 911 call, or read an official incident report.
Now I have nothing to show that indicates that EMS was called to the scene of the shooting. This is standard procedure and they would check the individual shot, as well as check the police officer who fell as he shot the individual and retreated for safety.
Although there are so many out there claiming no one came, and I can't convince them of anything except: "common sense" tells me the cop called in "shots fired, shots fired" and medical attention is needed immediately.
It is clear that one half hour after the shooting the officer called for "crows control" as people were now at the scene seeing Antonio Martin on the ground, probably covered already, yet people will say, he receive no medical care and was still alive and so on and so on.
There was indication very early on that Antonio was shopping with his mother at the store, but the video shows that was no the case at all. If she was there, Antonio would not have pulled out his gun to shoot the cop.
Also, Antonio Martin's girlfriend was NOT on the scene at the time of the shooting. Let's go to that article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/25/antonio-martin-girlfriend_n_6379262.html
I can't say again, one way or another what time EMS arrived. but IF it took 30 minutes, then there was a damn good reason why it couldn't arrive sooner.
From what I learned over the last couple of days, St. Louis County had over 295,000 911 calls from January 1, 1014 until the end of October 2014.
The officer is getting a lot of flack from social media because he did not have his body camera on or the car camera on. Do I fault the officer for that, no I don't. Would it have changed the outcome, not really, except the Antonio Martin's mother would have had a clearer view of what her done did that evening.
* In one of the press conferences the Captain speaks about the dashboard camera. He believes the dashboard camera is activated when the strobe lights come on. The officer did not have his lights on when he entered the parking lot. IF dashboard cam is only activated when strobe lights are on, then they need to adjust that system for sure.
The shadow views, the cop shooting and retreating, the woman running away, Antonio's friend running, is clear enough for me.
Now many on social media feel that Antonio Martin pulled out his white cellphone to record the cop. The reason they say this is because they see this white light. Although I did try to help by saying this is the cops flashlight, but all it did was bring animosity and words that just aren't needed.
In my opinion, the interaction between the cop and the guy with the light pants and hat was rather calm. The only person causing concern was Antonio Martin as he was trying to keep a distance from the cop. Well, based on the fact that Antonio, probably out on bond from cases yet to be heard, clearly wouldn't want another "pat down" to produce a gun, of which, would put him in jail and his bond revoked.
Miscellaneous Articles and Videos
http://fox2now.com/2014/12/24/citizen-describes-chasing-down-antonio-martin-after-a-2013-crime/
Enhanced video of Antonio Martin shooting in Berkeley, Missouri
Closer view of Antonio Martin pulling out a gun.
https://twitter.com/drgongtina/status/547756590523498498/photo/1
I will continue to add more as information is released. Let's hope that the guy with the light pants and hat comes forward and speaks with the police. DO THE RIGHT THING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY!
In my opinion, if this man doesn't come forward, its because he is concerned he might be charged in some way when Antonio Martin pulled the gun on the cop.
12.25.2014 @9:20 PM
The newest theory o n social media is the guy with the light pants and hat handed the gun to Antonio Martin. I guess in their thinking, its easy to pass a gun right in front of a cop! Ya can't make this shit up!
12/25/2014 9:53 PM
Parents of Antonio Martin say his fatal shooting "doesn't make any sense.
