JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — While Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said he would not show deputy body-camera footage of the shots that killed Kevin Veal, 26, at a Brother's Food Mart this weekend, he provided some excerpts of video leading up to that incident during a press conference Thursday.
The video seems to validate the claims by Lopinto and the sheriff's office that Veal was being treated with restraint before a scuffle ensued and he pulled a gun on an officer.
In the video, two officers arrive at the Terrytown gas station and convenience store, with Veal seen standing behind the store counter. After officers, ask the 26-year-old to move out from there, he refuses, questioning why the two are there and at one point saying, "I'm being kidnapped."
The footage then shows what Sheriff Lopinto called a, "bird's-eye view," of the incident from the store's surveillance cameras. Here, the two officers are now behind the counter trying to get ahold of Veal.
Eventually, Veal apparently pulls out a gun from his pocket. Deputy body camera footage shows one of the officers asking the 26-year-old suspect to put it down.
Another angle shows officers further pleading with Veal to put the gun down, as Veal runs to the back of the store. Sheriff Lopinto said Veal eventually made his way back to the store's bathroom.
Lopinto stopped short of showing the full footage of the shots that killed Veal, out of what he said was a concern for influencing witnesses during an ongoing investigation.
A third officer who arrived at the scene after the initial two officers, according to Lopinto, was the one who fired the majority of the shots aimed at Veal. That officer fired 15 shots, the sheriff said. One of the first two officers fired one shot before that.
Sheriff Lopinto praised the actions of the officers who were involved and said later in the conference that all deputies involved are back at work.
"They certainly had the justification at that time," Lopinto said pausing the video just after Veal fled to the bathroom with his gun. "(The deputies) showed in not shooting at that point in time."
According to the Jefferson Parish Coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich, the 26-year-old was hit by six bullets.
Veal also fired one shot with the gun he had, which Lopinto said was found inside a loaf of bread on one of the store's shelves.
Dr. Cvitanovich and Sheriff Lopinto said that a preliminary drug tests showed the 26-year-old had meth and other amphetamines in his system, as well as traces of THC, a chemical extracted from marijuana. Full drug analyses can take six to eight weeks, according to the officials.
Lopinto also presented three 9-1-1 calls from Veal and one from a worker at the convenience store. In Veal's calls to a dispatcher, he asked for officers to come to his location. However, after a dispatcher asked Veal follow up questions, he goes quiet and only sparsely answers dispatch's questions before hanging up.
The employee at Brother's Food Mart, where the incident happened, was shouting when he called for officers to arrive at the scene.
The sheriff said Veal's family had been given still images on Monday of the body camera footage but that they were not shown the full video.
Veal's family had been calling for a full release of the video from that incident. Ashonta Wyatt who has been serving as a spokesperson for the family called the shooting an example of discriminatory policing against black men.
"This continues to be a pattern and practice of a two-policing system," Wyatt said on Monday. "There's a separate way that they police black men in Jefferson Parish and that's a problem and if Joe Lopinto is saying his officers did right by Kevin that night then let us see the footage. That is all we’re asking for, transparency in policing.”
At Wednesday's press conference, Lopinto criticized some previous statements from the family, saying he believes they had been misleading people about the shooting.
"I have some sympathy for them," Sheriff Lopinto said. "They certainly weren't there that night, and they certainly lost a loved one ... But that doesn't give them the ability to make up a narrative that doesn't exist."