Protests erupted on Friday in Detroit after police shot and killed 20-year-old Hakeem Littleton. His uncle, Asar Amen-Ra claimed that his nephew had his arms raised in the air and the cops shot him in the back of his head. However, the police chief then released the video of the incident.
Amen-Ra said:
“We hear one thing from the police, and another thing from the community. The community told us that the police pulled up, told (him) to get on the ground. He put his hands up, and these mother f****** shot him in the back of the head.”
According to the police chief, Littleton was not their target, an unrelated man was. But when they tried to arrest the man, Littleton intervened and whipped out a gun and fired two shots at the officers before they even drew their weapons. He got off two more shots before he hit the ground and died.
Littleton told the police:
“You are not going to take my man, in other words, take him into custody.”
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said:
“He was using a .25 caliber blue steel automatic pistol. This comes from body cameras as well as an in dash camera from one of our scouts. There were eight shots fired in five seconds. Four fired by three officers, one officer fired two shots, and then four shots fired by the suspect.”
“As Littleton raised the gun in his left hand he was aiming at the head of the officer.”
Littleton fired two shots before officers returned fire. Craig said that Littleton managed to fire two more shots as he fell to the ground. In total, three officers fired just four shots, Craig said.
The police chief explained that video showed Littleton aimed for one officer’s head — but fortunately missed.