Family looking for answers in death of Virginia man shot and killed by off-duty Philadelphia officer
WASHINGTON - The family of an Arlington, Virginia man shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in Philadelphia speaks to FOX 5 as they continue to look for answers for his untimely and violent death.
But Lawal's family says he did nothing wrong -- and have proof as seen in a video of the incident.
The family says they've seen surveillance video of the crash, as well as dash cam footage from a nearby car, that shows the struggle and shooting.
They say the videos show clearly when Lawal hit the pedestrian it was an accident, but he was dead minutes later.
"There's no way you can look at that video and say that Segun did anything wrong at all. He did not do anything wrong," says niece Crystal Evans.
Lawal's family says they want the public to see the video that captured the morning he was shot 15 times at point-blank-range by an off off-duty Philadelphia police detective.
Police say just after 7:30 a.m. on January 29, witnesses saw Lawal driving erratically in a black Honda near Broad and Bigler Streets, when he struck a person getting out of a car.
Evans says Lawal was in town to visit a friend but was lost in an unfamiliar area, and she says the video she has seen backs that up.
"He's making a turn, someone is exiting the car at the same time and they are crossing the street. And he's just making the turn, and right before he hits the person it's like a quick swerve, kind of like you would swerve if you were not paying attention and someone popped in front of your car. It doesn't look like he swerved his car into the person"
"If my uncle was on some rampage or something like that there would absolutely be no reason for him to get out of the car or stop or anything like that. It just makes no sense," says Evans.
According to police, Lawal got out of his car and chased another person on foot who tried to detain him.
And then charged at off-duty detective James Powell, a 23-year veteran investigator as who was approaching the scene, leading to a violent struggle.
"The video shows it was likely no time for him to have even had a conversation, because as soon as Powell gets out of the car, he's walking very fast, he grabs his gun, he goes out of camera and then two seconds later, they are back in frame and at this point they are fighting. When I say fighting it's not fists being thrown, they are tangled in each other," says Evans.
Seconds later Evans says Powell starts firing several times, hitting her uncle in the face, neck, chest and legs. He died at the hospital.
Both the officer and the person hit by the car were not seriously hurt. Now, months later, the Lawal family says someone must be held accountable.
"Segun wasn't even in the car, Powell was responding to allegedly someone telling him 'Hey someone got hit by this person,' and as soon as Powell saw who that person was, he saw my uncle, he decided to approach him the way that he did -- without IDing himself, with a gun in his hand and of course that led to the events that we have today," she says.
"And then I think the thing we have to harp on is the fact that Segun was shot 15 times, several of which when he was already on the ground not moving and that is all caught on camera."
Lawal was unarmed and toxicology reports say he was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney tells FOX 5 he could not say much other than he has not seen the video and the matter is still under investigation.