Three innocent bystanders shot by Denver police while standing outside a LoDo bar last month want the Denver Police Department to publicly apologize for their injuries and announce a plan to make sure a similar incident doesn’t happen again.
Police shot the three victims — Yekalo Weldehiwet, Bailey Alexander and Willis Small IV — on July 17 while shooting at a man they stopped outside Larimer Beer Hall because they believed he was armed. The officers shot the man, Jordan Waddy, as he threw a gun to the ground. Police injured six bystanders standing nearby.
Weldehiwet, Alexander and Small spoke Wednesday after Denver police released body camera videos of the shooting, which the victims said shocked and disappointed them. The videos made it more clear that it was luck that nobody was killed, Small said.
“Now, when we have the truth, at least have the decency to come forward and say, ‘Yes, we messed up. We need more training, we take full responsibility. We need to reconsider our whole program and take accountability and learn from it,” Weldehiwet said.
Denver police officials omitted key facts from previous descriptions of the shooting, the victims said. Prior to the video release, department leaders never said that Waddy was throwing his gun away when officers shot him and that he had raised his hands when officers first contacted him.
“The omissions are as bad as straight-up lies, like that he pointed the muzzle of the gun at police,” said Siddhartha Rathod, one of the attorneys representing the three victims.
Police said in a July 20 news conference that Waddy “held (the gun) in a manner that the muzzle of the gun was pointed in the direction of the officers on Larimer Street,” though later acknowledged during questioning by reporters that Waddy was holding the gun by the top, not the grip, and that it was unclear whether he could have fired the gun holding it that way.
Body camera video shows Waddy pulling the gun from his clothing and moving it quickly across his chest before tossing it to the side. He never directly pointed the muzzle at officers.
Weldehiwet, Alexander and Small did not get an opportunity to view the videos before the Denver Department of Public Safety released them publicly. Weldehiwet decided not to watch the videos because he didn’t want to relive the traumatic evening.
“If body cameras didn’t exist, we might not have any idea who shot us to this day,” Small said.
All three victims said they were cautiously optimistic about Denver District Attorney Beth McCann’s decision to convene a grand jury, which will decide whether the three officers should face criminal charges.
The three officers — Meagan Lieberson, Brandon Ramos and Kenneth Rowland — are working non-patrol assignments while the investigation continues.
All three shooting victims are still living with pain from their bullet wounds. Weldehiwet, 26, underwent surgery to remove the bullet lodged in his bicep and reset the arm bone it shattered. He still experiences painful nerve damage in his hand, which could become permanent. Alexander, 24, spent several nights in the hospital two weeks ago after the wounds in her arm and shoulder became infected. She can still sometimes feel the painful burning sensation in her arm from bullet shrapnel lodged there. Small, 24, still feels pain in his foot where when he puts his full weight on it. He walks with a limp.
They also now fear crowds and feel a sense of dread when they see a police officer. Alexander has declined invitations to go to crowded concerts. Small said he always feared that police would shoot him, but that fear has intensified now that police actually shot him.
“I feel like it might not be safe for me to walk around,” he said.
Weldehiwet said his mom talks to him about what would’ve happened had the officer’s bullet struck him a few inches to the side. Wednesday would’ve been the one-month anniversary of his death, she told him.
“It always gets me emotional,” he said.
