COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Cobb County District Attorney's Office is releasing, for the first time publicly, video from the night a teenager was shot while running from Cobb County Police officers last summer.
Vincent Truitt was shot at the end of a chase in July 2020. According to family attorneys, Truitt was shot as he ran from officers after getting out of a car in which he had been a passenger. Officers had pursued it following a report of a stolen vehicle.
According to an autopsy report released by the Law Firm of Gerald Griggs, Truitt died after being shot twice in the back. His death was ruled a homicide.
Truitt's family had been demanding for months that it be made public. Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady, Jr. did so on Thursday after a grand jury cleared the officer who shot Truitt of wrongdoing and found it to be a justified use of force.
During the media briefing, the DA's office said the grand jury convened at 8:30 a.m. and reviewed substantial materials related to the shooting - including the body camera and dash camera videos from every officer who responded, witness testimony, stills from multiple vantage points, and slowed down video from the body camera. Those videos, which were not all shared with the media, purported to show a gun in Truitt's right hand, visible from multiple angles.
What was released Thursday to the media, however, only included excerpts of dash camera video and the body camera video from the officer who shot Truitt.
In the dash camera video, you can see the teen running from what police said was a stolen car. An officer chases after him, and, just out of frame, you can hear gunshots fired.
Then, there's the body cam video; it's a closer view of the teen leaving the car, and, at one point, you can see what looks like a dark object in his hand. The district attorney's office said it was a gun.
11Alive blew up the video and slowed it down, but the process made it so grainy, it was hard to tell what it was and whether the teen pointed it at the officer.
The DA's office also showed the media one still image during the press conference but it, too, was hard to make out whether the teen was holding a weapon. The DA's office said they did recover a gun from the scene.
During the briefing, the DA's office pointed out that the officers "immediately transitioned to life-saving aid" after the teen was shot, but the video shown during the briefing stops before that's seen. They said it was out of respect for the family.
Though the other videos have not yet been released to the public, yet, the DA's office said that now that the case is closed, those records should be available, soon.