In Minnesota, a man is suing a Brooklyn Park police officer for shooting him last year. There are about four minutes of police dash cam video might shed light on what actually went down that night. Conveniently or inconveniently -- depending on whose side of the story -- that video footage seems to have disappeared.
4 minutes of crucial dash cam video missing in man's case
Last year, 22-year-old Shoua Yang was at Valentine's Day party when a fight broke out and police were called to a banquet hall. According to the criminal complaint, three men ran into a car and the driver put it in reverse in high speed toward Officer Jason Chadbourne, who fired multiple shots at the vehicle. Yang was shot.
Yang, accused of driving the car at Chadbourne, was charged with second-degree assault, but was acquitted by a jury last month. His lawsuit offers a different side of the story:
Last month, a jury acquitted Yang on all charges. The other side of the story in a new lawsuit against the officer is that Yang never knew the police were even there on the dark, snowy night and was just pulling out to leave. Attorney Bob Bennett filed suit against the officer.
“We don't let hunters shoot at game they can't identify. The same should be for police officers. You fire at three individuals in a car without being able to see what they're doing, where they are, or whether they pose any danger to you at all,” he said.
Dashcam video may answer some of those questions, and the lawsuit says the camera had three hours of recordings, just not the crucial four minutes needed to complete the story.
Brooklyn Park police policy mandates that officers record all stops and contact with the public, but at some point, Chadbourne shut off both the squad car's camera and his microphone. That's rather fishy, considering that the most crucial moments in the altercation were not recorded.
Three hours of recording from that night... and the most important moments have gone missing? Suspicious.