CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland Heights police late Friday released more than two dozen body camera videos that show the chaotic moments after officers shot an 18-year-old man last month.
The city also released reports of interviews collected by officers following the shooting of Christian Thomas outside his Yellowstone Road home Aug. 29. The trove of information, obtained through a public records request, did not include any videos of the officers confronting or shooting Thomas.
The footage shows officers speaking with Thomas’ father, Ferrel, who initially called police shortly before 10 p.m. to help settle a family dispute. His son had a handgun and had his finger on the trigger when officers arrived, police reports show.
The two men argued in the home, and Christian Thomas fired at least one shot before officers ordered Ferrel Thomas to leave, police said. Later, his son also left and came upon three officers who fired as many as nine shots, the reports indicate.
“I should have stayed,” Ferrel Thomas said while sitting on the grass in front of his home after the incident. “I should have stayed inside with him.”
A police officer, speaking with the father, said the officers “had no choice,” according to the video the city released.
“He was in there by himself,” Ferrel Thomas said. “I tried talking him down.”
Stanley Jackson, an attorney for the Thomas family, said he received the videos and the information before cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer did. He said the city has yet to be fully transparent, despite vows by the city’s mayor, Kahlil Seren, this week.
“It’s clear that they are withholding information,” Jackson said.
He cited the words of the city’s police chief, Christopher Britton, who told reporters days after the shooting that he viewed snippets of the officers’ body camera videos and did not see Christian Thomas point a gun at them.
“Let’s be frank: Whatever the police chief saw, we haven’t seen,” Jackson said.
The police reports and videos show that Christian Thomas was high on psilocybin mushrooms. They also indicate that police found fentanyl and mushrooms in the home.
Ferrel Thomas told officers that his son was high and that the dispute stemmed from a bag of mushrooms the father had found, according to the footage and a police report. He also said he had told his son to move out of the home.
Ferrel Thomas said his son was agitated, believing that a family member had died. He had the gun and refused to put it down, according to police reports and video.
Officers arrived and urged the father to leave and for the son to come out and show his hands, according to the videos. Police reports said officers yelled for Christian Thomas to put his hands in the air. He later left the home with the weapon, police said.
After the shooting, police found a handgun and a spent shell casing.
Ferrel Thomas initially blamed police while speaking with officers, saying that they had “murdered my son.”
Later, when a family member became angry at officers for the shooting, Thomas said, “They didn’t do it. He did it to him (expletive) self,” according to a police report.
Jackson, the attorney for the family, disputes that, saying, “I don’t know where they got that.”
He said the city should release all of the videos from the incident.
“This is another example of this department hiding their activities so they won’t be held accountable,” Jackson said.
