DALLAS — The family of the man shot and killed during an arrest attempt last week is demanding the release of all unedited police videos related to the case before they can believe what the Dallas Police Department (DPD) tell them the videos show.
Kyle Dail, 30, was shot and killed late Thursday night after officers investigated complaints about drug deals at the LBJ Food Mart on Jupiter Road.
DPD said Dail had eluded arrest earlier that night but then returned to the food mart, where officers approached him at the back of the store.
As shown in the portions of body camera video and surveillance video that police have released, police say they tackled Dail because they had been chasing him earlier that night, feared he had a gun, and didn't want to give him a chance to run again. But 27 seconds into the struggle, in video that police spotlighted, police say Dail raises a handgun near an officer's face and then throws the gun away.
But one officer had already made the decision to open fire.
"He actively disarmed himself. And they shot him," civil rights attorney Justin Moore, who is representing the Dail family, said. "That's not justified. That's criminal."
Tuesday afternoon, Dail's family along with Dallas activist Dominique Alexander, demanded police release all of the unedited videos, including any dashcam and helicopter videos to prove the chase happened. They also demanded the officer who killed Dail be terminated and charged with a crime.
"You can't just take a child of God like that away from us like that with no reasoning," Dail's brother Sarandon Steward said. "At the end of the day, we should still have him here with us today, but we don't."
"Time, money, nothing you could say, do, protest, nothing would ever make me feel right about this," Dail's sister Kinesha Dail said.
She told WFAA last week that he was likely throwing the gun away in an attempt to avoid another potential gun charge on his record. She doesn't believe he was trying to shoot anyone.
"I'm gonna forever deal with this until the day I die," said Kinesha Dail.
"Now at the end of the day, Kyle probably did have a gun," Dominique Alexander of the Next Generation Action Network said. "What we're saying is that we do not live in the America where you blur, or edit, or alter a video, and yet we just take it because the Dallas Police Department said it. No, that relationship and level of transparency, whether you're black, blue, green or white has been gone away a long time in this country."
But the chair of the Dallas Community Police Oversight Board is asking for patience while the special investigations unit of DPD and the Dallas County District Attorney's Office conducts investigations.
"I'm a Black man. I just saw a Black man be killed by the police. Right or wrong there is an emotional piece to that," Jesuorobo Enobakhare Jr., of the Dallas Community Police Oversight Board said. "But, we have to sit back and let the investigation happen."
Contacted by WFAA for a response, a spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department says that "additional videos will not be released at this time as this is an ongoing criminal investigation. The Dallas Police Department’s SIU is investigating the officer involved shooting. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is also conducting their own investigation into the shooting."
The Dail family plans to hold a candle light vigil Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at Cedardale Park, and a protest Wednesday night at 7 p.m. outside Dallas Police headquarters.