This Friday, authorities released a police dashcam video showing a huge brawl between Arizona police officers and a family of Christian street performers, that ended with a 21 year-old man dead.
Police say that the incident began when they responded to a report of a female Walmart employee being physically assaulted as she tried to enter a restroom. When the fight broke out, a man named Enoch Gaver grabbed Sgt. Jeremy Daniels’ gun and shot him, causing another officer to return fire.
The brawl broke out when eight officers from the Cottonwood Police Department responded to a call on Saturday, March 21 that a female Walmart employee had been physically assaulted when trying to enter a store restroom, according to a statement from police. When officers arrived, the suspects — identified by police as members of the Gaver family — were in the parking lot attacking a second store employee, and immediately began attacking officers who tried to break up the melee, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said.
The newly released video appears to show officers and suspects punching and kicking one another, and officers using Tasers, batons and pepper spray on several members of the Gaver family. An officer identified as Sgt. Jeremy Daniels appears to be on the ground in a struggle with a suspect over the officer’s weapon. An officer identified as Officer Rick Hicks appears to shoot one man in the stomach before fatally shooting a man on top of Daniels.
“The officers did a very good job of restraining themselves,” Cottonwood Police Chief Jody Fanning said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. “I have no reason why [the Gavers] decided to fight us.”
The Gaver family are based in Idaho and are a well-known group of street performers who play in an acoustic band called Matthew 24 Now.
Watch a report on the story from NBC News in the video below:
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