LOS ANGELES – The image on the grainy home video is sensational and disturbing: A sheriff's deputy shoots a man who appears to be unarmed and obeying his orders.
But experts say it remains unclear whether the video tells the entire story of what transpired this week in Chino after a brief, high-speed car chase in San Bernardino County. Videos, they say, often end up raising more questions than they answer.
“They're drenched with caveats,” said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College in New York City.
“One thing we've learned about videos is there are often missing pieces before and after,” added O'Donnell, a former New York police officer and prosecutor. “The quality of the video is often problematic, and the sound doesn't pick up relevant issues and can actually distort things.”
In the Chino shooting, a deputy appears in a 40-second home video to order 21-year-old Elio Carrion to his feet, then shoots him as he tries to stand. Carrion, an Air Force security officer just back from Iraq, underwent surgery for wounds to his chest, ribs and leg and was in good condition.
Carrion was a passenger in a Corvette whose driver led the deputy on a short car chase at speeds of up to 100 mph Sunday night.
The FBI was investigating possible civil rights violations in the shooting.
No weapons were found on Carrion or the driver, Luis Escobedo, who hasn't been charged, sheriff's officials said. The deputy, whose name has been withheld, has been on the force for about 10 years and has had no previous disciplinary action taken against him, sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.
The impact of videos became clear in March 1991 after images of Los Angeles police officers beating motorist Rodney King were beamed into living rooms worldwide. Since then, videos have captured a number of incidents, some involving white police officers and black suspects.
The footage includes an officer in Inglewood slamming the face of a handcuffed 16-year-old boy onto the hood of a police car in 2002, and the beating by police of a retired teacher in New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina.
Law enforcement agencies recognize the importance of video. Departments nationwide are installing cameras in police cruisers to protect officers against false allegations.
But images captured on tape are open to wide interpretation.
Los Angeles exploded in rioting in April 1992 after a Superior Court jury acquitted four LAPD officers of criminal charges in connection with the King beating. The violence resulted in 55 deaths, nearly 2,400 injuries and about $1 billion in damage. Two of the officers were later found guilty of federal civil rights charges.
Two juries deadlocked in the criminal trial of Inglewood police officer Jeremy Morse, who was accused of assaulting 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.
In New Orleans, two police officers were fired and another suspended following the beating of 64-year-old Robert Davis – an incident photographed and videotaped. The officers' attorney said the video didn't tell the whole story of the confrontation. Morse's attorney argued the same thing, claiming his client slammed Jackson down after the boy grabbed the officer's testicles and refused to let go. “That wasn't captured on this film angle,” said attorney John Barnett, who defended Morse and one of the officers in the King beating.
Similarly, San Bernardino County sheriff's officials caution that the video of the Chino shooting is grainy and the audio is at times unclear.
