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Police in Walnut Creek on Tuesday released body camera footage of a deadly officer-involved shooting that left a mentally ill man dead.
The shooting on Sandra Court that ended with the death of Miles Hall began with multiple 911 calls warning that miles suffered from mental illness. It ended with Hall down on the ground, bleeding after Walnut Creek officers shot him.
“Mr. Hall was shot down, gunned down as if he were a roaming steer,” Hall family attorney John Burris said. Burris says the officers trying to contain Hall while he was in the middle of schizoaffective episode made all the wrong moves, starting by shouting orders.
“If you know a person is mentally impaired, which everyone had reason to believe, the last thing you do is shout, scream orders because that would only aggregate the situation,” said Burris. Miles was then shot with bean bag rounds.
After that, Burris says Miles was running away from the chaotic scene and home – as he had done during prior episodes – and that’s when Walnut Creek officers fired. “If he had turned back and charged them and swung the pole that’s one thing.
He was running by them and the fact that he was trying to get away – you don’t get to shoot somebody down who is running away unless that person has committed a deadly offense or serious felony. That’s Tennessee versus Garner. It is basic law,” Burris said.