Group Sues Police For Any Videos of Man’s Fatal Shooting

From AP News:

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A conservative legal group has sued a Maryland police department for copies of any body camera videos of a fatal shooting of a man whose family says he was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire.

Judicial Watch Inc. filed its lawsuit against the Montgomery County Police Department, which hasn’t publicly acknowledged whether it captured any video of the March 12 shooting of Duncan Lemp. The 21-year-old man’s death has galvanized an anti-government movement that hails Lemp as a martyr.

Prosecutors in neighboring Howard County are reviewing the shooting.

Members of a tactical unit were serving a “no-knock” search warrant at Lemp’s home around 4:30 a.m. on March 12 when an officer fatally shot him. Lemp’s girlfriend and parents say he was asleep in his bed beside his girlfriend when police fired at him from outside the house in Potomac, Maryland, according to family attorney Rene Sandler.

The family’s account contradicts a statement issued by the police department, which said Lemp was armed with a rifle and ignored commands to show his hands and get on the ground when officers entered the family’s home. The department also said police found a “booby trap” affixed to the frame of Lemp’s bedroom door.

Judicial Watch sued the police department on July 28 in Montgomery County Circuit Court. It accuses the department of violating the Maryland Pubic Information Act. The group said the department failed to respond to its June 18 public records request for videos of the shooting.

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