Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders said Cincinnati Police should not have released body camera footage of officers fatally shooting 20-year-old Ali Coulter because the investigation is still ongoing.
The video showed body camera footage from Cincinnati officers Charles Knapp and Mark Longworth as they came upon 20-year-old Coulter Monday morning in Covington, fatally shooting him. Coulter was armed, police said, and he was charged with murder earlier this month.
“When videos are released, there is no way for investigators to differentiate between true witnesses and people who just watched the news and now claim to be witnesses,” Sanders told LINK nky. “If an investigation results in charges, it becomes impossible to find a jury which hasn’t been tainted by receiving evidence outside the courtroom before a trial ever began. Trials should be held in a court of law, not the court of public opinion.”
As to whether Kentucky State Police, which is handling the investigation, has jurisdiction over Cincinnati police releasing video, Sanders said “jurisdiction is something the City of Cincinnati is very cavalier in ignoring. This is a Kentucky investigation. The evidence is subject to a Kentucky Grand Jury subpoena. I have never in my career witnessed such a flagrant lack of respect, not to mention professional courtesy, for another jurisdiction’s authority.”
Interim Chief Teresa Theege said during the press conference that the officers did render aid to Coulter once they knew the scene was safe.
“It is important to note here that once the officers discharge their weapons, they have a couple of responsibilities,” Theege said. “They first have to make sure the scene is safe, then they are to render aid.”
Once they found the scene to be secure, Theege said, they got Coulter oxygen and started chest compressions.
Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders took to Twitter to say that the video shouldn’t have been released.
