Fort Worth police say they have no plans to release body-camera video that shows three officers shooting and killing an armed fugitive.
Some community activists and even some city leaders are pushing police to make the footage public. Tuesday night's city council meeting got heated, with anger, raised voices, accusations and calls for council members and police to lose their jobs.
On Sunday, officers opened fire on JaQuavion Slaton, 20, an armed fugitive wanted for aggravated assault, police said.
The officers tried to stop him, but he ignored orders and ran and hid in a pickup truck, police said. Investigators found a handgun in the car and they said there's evidence the suspect fired it.
But those who spoke at the city council meeting Tuesday night said they didn't trust the police department's account of the incident. They questioned why officers didn't back off and try to de-escalate the situation.
"We could have talked that young man out," said one speaker, Jesse Taylor. "We could have taken more time, that young man, he could be alive today and face his time in court."
Right after the incident on Sunday, false rumors circulated that the person police shot was an unarmed 15-year-old boy.
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"Don't come over here and kill our kids," an emotional woman screamed.
Police responded to the rumors immediately.
"There are a lot of rumors out here right now about a child being involved," Fort Worth police Sgt. Chris Daniels said. "There were no children involved whatsoever."
But the message didn't get through.
Even people who claimed to be witnesses seemed to add credence to the untrue rumors.
"He didn't have no weapon," Dee Kinney said. "He was not armed. He didn't have no weapon on him. And he was a minor. You could tell he wasn't over 17."
City council member Gyna Bivens grew up in the Stop Six neighborhood.
She said she's waiting for all the information before she makes a judgment and called on police to release body-cam video, but added the early rumors were not helpful.
"When you are chasing down something that's not true with the truth, there's a resistance from time-to-time," she said. "Because people really believed that a teenager had been shot and killed, an unarmed teen, and that was not the case."
Minister T.J. Ragsdale said in such situations, nobody should jump to conclusions.
"The facts are the facts. Some people will believe the facts and some people won't," he said.
Police had issued warrants for Slaton's arrest after an incident at the University of Texas in Tyler on April 28.
Slaton was charged with domestic violence after he strangled someone and assaulted her while brandishing a weapon, a university spokesman said. He also was charged with fleeing police.
It happened in an apartment complex owned by the university, which is being converted to student housing.
NBC5's Alice Barr contributed to this report.
