BALTIMORE — His family readily admits 37-year-old Dwight Hawkins was once a drug dealer.
But they say the father of three was a changed man, holding down a job in recent years, occasionally walking to the neighborhood bar for a drink, which ultimately landed him in the crosshairs of police on Tuesday.
“As soon as he hit the corner to go to the bar, the police pulled over, hopped out of the car,” said Chante Fenner, the victim’s cousin, “As soon as he walked in, he turned around (and) walked out, and they asked him, ‘Hey, you ain’t getting nothing? Why you leaving out the store? ’He said, ‘I’m good,’ and kept walking.”
Family critical of fatal police-involved shooting
Why police later said they believed he was armed remains under investigation, but they weren’t about to let him walk away, and then he took off running.
“At one point, he pulled his hands out. He had a handgun in his hands. In his right hand,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley, “He continued running with the gun in his hands. As the individual continued running, officers pulled out their weapons.He ran almost face-to-face with a second officer at which time he was shot.”
Home surveillance video captured the moment Hawkins fled until the officers opened fire, which from start to finish only took about 10 seconds.
Hawkins’ family not only questions the officers’ actions leading up to the shooting, but also what they did after that.
“The officer, instead of them like trying to cover the wounds or try to help him out, they flipped him over, put the handcuffs on him, put their knee in his back and he’s still screaming like, ‘Aghhh!Help!’, like you feel me, and then they finally flipped him over and tried to do CPS, but my cousin was already gone,” said Fenner.
A justified kill?
Well, that will be up to the Maryland Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division to determine, but overkill?
Dwight Hawkins’ family says there’s no doubt about it in their mind.
“16 shots? 16 shots, two officers? And a third officer backup,” said Fenner, “and on the video you hear, ‘Whoa!’, like it was a hunting game, ‘We got him! Whoa! We’re happy!’ Like no, my cousin needs justice.”
