Five Oklahoma City officers charged in fatal shooting of teenage robbery suspect

Five Oklahoma City officers were charged Wednesday with first-degree manslaughter after fatally shooting a teenage robbery suspect last year. 

Stavian Rodriguez, 15, died last November after being shot 13 times, according to The Oklahoman. Police said he did not follow officers’ commands to get on the ground and instead reached into his back pocket.

Body camera footage released Wednesday shows Rodriguez dropping his pistol and an extended magazine he was carrying. After he dropped the pistol, officers told him to get on the ground, but Rodriguez remained standing and reached into his back pocket.

The district attorney’s investigator said in affidavits that Police Sgt. Sarah Carli was the first to fire but did so with “a 40mm less lethal round,” according to The Oklahoman

The rest of the officers “all unnecessarily fire lethal rounds at Stavian Rodriguez, striking him numerous times and inflicting mortal wounds,” the investigator said. “Stavian Rodriguez had no weapons other than the firearm, which he dropped prior to being shot. A cellphone was recovered from the left rear pocket he had his hand in at the time he was shot.”

Carli was not charged, but officers Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, Jonathan Skuta and Brad Pemberton were. 

“No one should be executed because they made ‘furtive movements’. Our systems are broken and need to be re-imagined and need rebuilding,” Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon said after the shooting.

Over a dozen shots were fired by the five officers at Rodriguez. He later died at the hospital.

“When an armed robbery suspect did not obey police commands, five officers perceived the same threat and simultaneously fired their weapons. A loss of life is always a tragedy and we know these officers did not take firing their weapons lightly. The OKC FOP stands by these officers and maintains they acted within the law,” Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police said on Wednesday.