DC Police have released body camera footage of a police shooting that took place early Wednesday morning in Northeast DC. Around 3 AM, Antwan Gilmore, 27, was found unconscious at the wheel of his car at a traffic light on New York Avenue. He was awakened by officers at the intersection, then shot and killed as he drove away.
Footage shows a group of officers preparing to wake up Gilmore, with an officer saying, “Watch the hands! Where’s the gun at?” Police say a firearm was recovered from the scene, and that it had been on the right side of Gilmore’s waistband. DC Police Chief Robert Contee said the video does not conclusively show that the gun was recovered at the time of the incident. Neither the gun nor the car were registered to Gilmore, who had an open warrant out for his arrest for a 2020 incident.
The footage continues as officers tap on the window, waking up Gilmore, who makes the car jerk forward. Police tell him to stop the vehicle, and he complies briefly before driving away. At this point, 10 shots are fired, killing Gilmore. Contee says a single officer fired the shots.
It’s impossible to see Gilmore in any of the footage, and some of the footage is obscured by one officer’s ballistic shield that was covering his body cam. Contee said it was difficult to see what the officer perceived as a threat due to the obstruction, and that the incident will go to the US Attorney’s office for further investigation.
“Firing at a moving vehicle is inconsistent with our policies,” Contee said in a news conference Thursday morning. “We do have a policy in respect to shooting at a moving vehicle.”
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
