A University of Cincinnati police officer went to jail on a murder charge Wednesday after his own body camera video showed him shooting an unarmed motorist in the head during a traffic stop.
Ray Tensing is the first officer in Cincinnati to face murder charges for killing someone in the line of duty.
The video proved to be crucial evidence to the grand jurors who indicted Tensing, and it stunned city officials, prosecutors and the relatives of shooting victim Samuel DuBose.
It also was a reminder that video, whether captured by witnesses on smart phones or by police officers themselves, is transforming the way fatal encounters involving police are investigated and perceived around the nation.
"It's an absolute tragedy that anyone would behave in this manner," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said after publicly releasing the video. "It was senseless. It's just horrible.
"He purposefully killed him."
The video shows that Tensing, who stopped DuBose in Mount Auburn on July 19 for driving without a front license plate, speaks to him for a little less than two minutes before the fatal shot is fired.
When Tensing asks DuBose to take off his seat belt, DuBose says "I didn't even do nothing" and turns his ignition key, starting the car. Tensing then reaches into the car with one hand and, with the other, fires a single shot into DuBose's head.
DuBose did not appear to be belligerent or aggressive toward the officer before the shot was
fired, though his lawyer, Stew Mathews, said Tensing feared he would be run over.
Mathews said charging his client with murder was "absolutely unwarranted." He said he expected an indictment, but on lesser charges. "Murder is the purposeful killing of another," Mathews said. "There wasn't any purpose to kill this fella."
Tensing, 25, faces 15 years to life in prison if he's convicted. The body camera video is likely to be a key piece of evidence at the trial.
"I think it's safe to say that this case is going to help the cause of body cameras across the country," Mayor John Cranley said. "I think we all hoped that the charges that would come out of the grand jury would match the video. We wanted the right thing to be done."
The murder charge came after 12 Hamilton County citizens reviewed evidence all day Monday as part of their grand jury investigation into the incident, which had put the city on edge and rekindled worries about the sometimes strained relationship between police and blacks in Cincinnati.
UC's campus shut down and classes were canceled Wednesday in anticipation of the announcement. Ohio Highway Patrol troopers were seen arriving on campus by late morning.
City officials also were taking no chances. Cincinnati police prepared for possible protests and unrest, while Cranley and other city officials asked neighborhood activists to help keep the peace.
They said the city has changed since the riots and unrest that followed a fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by police in 2001, and they were optimistic the reaction this time would be peaceful.
As of Wednesday night, they remained hopeful. Several small demonstrations and prayer services took place across the city, but no trouble was reported.
Another big change since 2001 is the existence of the video, which gave police, prosecutors and everyone else in the community a view of the incident they would not have had a decade ago, or even a few years ago.
Instead of trying to piece together a timeline based only on statements from witnesses and officers at the scene, investigators had a real-time account of the shooting they could play back again and again.
DuBose's relatives, who buried him Tuesday, said they, too, were grateful for the video. His mother, Audrey DuBose, wondered if she'd ever know what really happened and feared prosecutors would blindly accept the word of the officer who killed her son.
"I'm so thankful that everything was uncovered," she said. "Everything is being revealed. I can rest now."
DuBose's sister, Terina Allen, said the video and the work of the grand jurors made it possible to pursue the first-ever murder case against a police officer in Cincinnati.
"I am pleased we will get some kind of justice," she said. "My brother was about to be just another stereotype and that didn't happen."
The traffic stop seemed to begin normally enough. Tensing stopped DuBose at Rice and Valencia streets in Mount Auburn, got out of his cruiser and approached the driver's side of DuBose's car.
Although Tensing works for UC and the stop occurred about a half-mile from campus, the university's officers are permitted to patrol in areas where many students live off campus.
The video shows some casual back-and-forth between Tensing and DuBose over whether he has a suspended driver's license before the officer asks DuBose to take off his seat belt.
At that point, DuBose tells the officer, "I didn't even do nothing." He then starts the car and Tensing reaches inside the vehicle.
The shot is fired seconds later.
Deters, whose office reviews all shootings involving police officers, said he's never seen a case of such poor policing. Even if DuBose was attempting to drive away, he said, Tensing should have let him go.
"He wasn't dealing with someone wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone without a front license plate," Deters said, describing that offense as "chicken crap stuff."
"Some people want to believe Mr. DuBose did something violent toward the officer," Deters said. "He did not. He did not at all."
