D.C. Metropolitan Police are in the early stages of investigating the cop shooting that left a Black teenager dead on Sept. 2. Bodycam footage of the shooting was released the following day.
Deon Kay, 18, died after he was shot in the chest by an officer seconds after the officer arrived on the scene. Police responded to a social media livestream that showed a group of young Black men inside a car, showing off handguns. One was wearing a mask. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham said in a Sept. 3 news conference officers were able to identify Kay because of his prior encounters with the police.
“They knew Mr. Kay when they saw the livestream. They knew him by name,” Newsham said.
Police identified the location of the individuals and responded within 45 minutes. At 4 p.m., officers arrived at the 200 block of Orange Street in southeast Washington and encountered multiple people in and around a vehicle. In the bodycam footage released Thursday, Officer Alexander Alvarez exits his police vehicle and advances toward the car in the apartment parking lot.
As one person exits the vehicle and runs away from Alvarez, the officer is heard repeating, “don’t move!” Kay also exits the car with a gun in his hand and throws it down a hill as Alvarez fires a shot, striking him in the chest.
Alvarez fired the shot less than 10 seconds after he arrived on the scene.
Alvarez immediately rushes to find the gun Kay threw, and finds it nearly 100 feet away. Kay was transported to a hospital, where he did pronounced dead.
Alvarez is also heard on the footage saying that he is not sure whether or not Kay is minor. “I don’t know if he is … I don’t know,” he says. “I mean, I think he was like a year ago, I think.”
Kay’s family said he turned 18 in August. His mother, Natasha Kay, said officers did not tell her much about the shooting. “I need my son back,” she said. “I want my son back.”
Omar Jackson, who had been Kay’s youth mentor for the past two years, described the teen as a young man trying to navigate a “chaotic situation.”
“He was trying to get himself together and get out of this situation,” Jackson said. “I feel bad. My job is to keep him out of situations like this.” Jackson said Kay enjoyed spending time with his girlfriend, playing sports, and looking after his nieces and nephews.
On Twitter, attorney Benjamin Crump challenged the officer’s use of lethal force as Kay tossed the gun away from him.
Metropolitan Chief Newsham said an investigation is underway. “We are in the infancy stages of an investigation,” he said at the news conference Thursday. “All we have is some statements and a video. There is a lot of work yet to be done before we come up with any conclusions.” Kay’s family has called for Newsham to be fired by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Officer Alvarez has been placed on administrative leave.
Protesters demonstrated outside of the 7th District police station on Wednesday night and outside of Bowser’s home the next morning.
Two other men were arrested at the scene. One man was arrested for carrying a pistol without a license, and the other for driving without a license. A third individual escaped.
