Call for release of Taser death video

But for many concerned about the steps leading up to Okobi’s death as well as two other 2018 deaths involving use of Tasers by law enforcement officers in the county, the lack of response from county officials has been extremely disappointing. Half Moon Bay resident Kate Amoo-Gottfried was among several individuals representing the group #Justice4Chinedu and the Raging Grannies Action League who gathered at a sit-in at Wagstaffe’s office Wednesday to raise awareness of Okobi’s death and demand more information about the circumstances surrounding it.

A friend to Ebele Okobi, Okobi’s sister, Amoo-Gottfried said what had felt like a national conversation on racially-biased policing hit close to home when she learned of his death. Having attended several meetings of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in search of a response to Oct. 3 incident, Amoo-Gottfried said the group has been demanding Wagstaffe release video footage of the incident to the public for weeks.

“I think that’s damaging the trust that the public has both with our Sheriff’s [Office] and with the District Attorney’s Office,” she said. “There’s nothing right now that allows us to have any transparency or to see what actually happened.”

But Wagstaffe said his focus has been on releasing the video footage simultaneously with other evidence his office is reviewing in connection with the incident, noting he is committed to releasing the footage when he releases a report detailing the investigation. Without access to the transcripts of the statements of the deputies and witnesses as well as an autopsy report and other documents related to the case, those viewing video footage could get an incomplete picture of what happened, said Wagstaffe.

“It’s going to be a skewed picture, it’s not going to be the whole thing,” he said, noting the whole incident was not caught on tape. “To prevent what I view as misinformation and false information going out there, I’m going to put that all out at once.”

Wagstaffe said he is not currently required by law to release the video footage any earlier, though he acknowledged a state law to take effect later this year will require video footage to be released within 45 days in some cases. He noted his office is currently working on a plan to release the video footage of the Oct. 3 incident on social media.

Wagstaffe has been fielding calls from hundreds of concerned individuals after Ebele Okobi wrote in a Nov. 18 Facebook post that video footage of the incident is at odds with police accounts of what happened that day and urged readers to ask Wagstaffe to release of the footage and recordings of any calls made to 911 prior to five deputies’ contact with Okobi.

Though the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office released a statement Oct. 3 claiming Okobi was “running in and out of traffic” on the 1300 block of El Camino Real in Millbrae at 1 p.m. and assaulted a deputy, Ebele Okobi has written in Facebook posts the videos contradict the Sheriff’s Office’s statement.

Ebele Okobi has said video shows her brother walking calmly down the sidewalk and not in the street and he “doesn’t look disheveled or as if he’s in crisis” when a deputy approached him. She wrote her brother never assaulted anyone and actually died on the scene after deputies hit him with a Taser multiple times, struck him with a baton and deployed pepper spray. At one point, she wrote, Okobi tried to run away when deputies chased him, hit him with a Taser again and did not attempt to revive him.

Though Amoo-Gottfried is hoping the video footage could shed light on what prompted the five deputies to engage with Okobi, she also voiced concern about the background of an independent expert specializing in “use of force” incidents Wagstaffe hired to weigh in on what has become a monthslong investigation. Having learned the independent expert has a career in law enforcement, Amoo-Gottfried felt the expert could be biased toward the sheriff’s deputies in this case.

Wagstaffe said those with expertise in the use of Tasers are very likely to have a law enforcement background, and said he worked to ensure the expert he hired didn’t have any ties to law enforcement agencies in San Mateo County.

Wagstaffe acknowledged inviting an outside expert to assess the case has delayed the date by which his office’s report, along with the information reviewed as part of the investigation, will be released to the public. He said he is now estimating the report will be available in mid- to late-February, and noted the investigation is progressing more quickly than other similar efforts in the state, which he said can take up to 2 1/2 years.

Having participated in the same church community as Okobi, San Mateo resident Paulette Landers voiced support for release of the videos as a way to assure residents they are safe. Landers said members of her church community have been disappointed in recent weeks by the prospect of those who are supposed to protect residents causing harm to them.

“We have to have transparency,” she said. “We have to ensure members of any community are safe.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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