Why Should Delaware Care?
A recent shooting of a 19-year-old has quickly become one of Wilmington’s highest-profile police use-of-force cases in recent years. With differing accounts from police and community members, a Delaware Department of Justice investigation is expected to be closely watched as residents look for answers.
On Thursday morning, the family of a teen shot and killed by police in northeast Wilmington publicly demanded that city officials release body camera footage from the shooting.
Later in the day, the family was shown the video by Wilmington police. Also watching was a family attorney, Harry Daniels, who told Spotlight Delaware the video depicted events on June 24 that continued to raise more questions than answers.
He said the body camera footage, taken from the officer who fired the fatal shot, begins with 19-year-old Kadir Skinner running from a neighborhood dog as police began chasing him. Skinner never turned toward the officer before police shot at him three or four times, according to Daniels.
The Wilmington Police Department has verified that Skinner was struck once by the firing officer.
“He never threatened the officers. He was running with nobody around him,” said Daniels, a Georgia-based civil rights lawyer.
Skinner was then handcuffed. He later told officers numerous times that he couldn’t breathe, Daniels said.
“That’s when they decided to rapidly pick him up and take him to the hospital, where he ultimately died,” he said.
Daniels also sought to refute the city police department’s assertion that Skinner had pointed a gun toward a crowd of people prior to the foot chase. He said the body-camera video showed no crowd of people in the area until after the shooting when neighbors began to gather around the scene.
Asked about Daniels’ account, Daniel Walker, deputy chief of staff to Mayor John Carney, said the footage, which doesn’t show the lead up to the shooting, does not contradict any of the city’s statements to date.
“This footage does not reflect the totality of the investigation, which is still ongoing,” Walker added in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Walker did not respond to the question of why the officer in question made the decision to shoot Skinner.
Police account under scrutiny
In their first statement, Wilmington PD reported officers were monitoring a large gathering near Jessup and East 24th streets when they saw Skinner leave a home and point a gun toward the crowd.
When officers approached him, Skinner fled on foot, according to police.
On Wednesday, city officials released additional details, saying Skinner was shot once in the buttocks during the chase, and that officers then transported him to the hospital themselves.
Police also said they recovered a .45-caliber handgun but did not say whether Skinner was holding it when he was shot.
The officer who fired the shot, who has yet to be identified, remains on administrative leave, according to police.
The police’s account of the events was challenged even before Skinner’s family watched the body camera footage.
Latiya Greene, who said she witnessed the shooting while visiting a relative in the area, previously told Spotlight Delaware she saw Skinner running with his hands raised as officers chased him.
She said she heard him say something to the effect of, “I don’t have nothing,” before he was shot. Greene said she did not see anything in his hands.
Greene also said she saw an officer collect shell casings shortly after the shooting.
“He came and swooped up all the shell casings from off the ground, put them in his pocket,” she said.
Asked about Greene’s account, city spokeswoman Caroline Klinger referred Spotlight Delaware to an earlier statement from the mayor’s office saying details would be released after state and city investigations conclude.
Klinger has also noted that city officials sent the body camera footage to the Delaware Department of Justice for its investigation.
The DOJ intends to release the body camera footage publicly, department spokesman Mat Marshall said, but it first must blur faces of bystanders and collect supplemental footage.
Marshall also stated that Attorney General Kathy Jennings has spoken with Skinner’s family and has expedited her department’s investigation.
DOJ officials are asking anyone with video that shows the incident to contact publictrust@delaware.gov
A community backlash
City officials showed Skinner’s family the body camera footage after days of rallies, community meetings and growing criticism of the shooting — and the city’s response to it.
At a protest on Tuesday, local activist Mahkieb Booker led a crowd of about 50 people on a march from Rodney Square to the nearby Delaware state building.
Organizers decided to gather at the state’s Carvel Office Building to highlight what Booker said was a lackluster response to the police shooting by the state DOJ.
Two days later, on Thursday, Skinner’s family held their press conference. While there, his sister Aniyah Clark pleaded for Wilmington officials to provide a more detailed account of what happened.
“My goodness, it shouldn’t take this much for us to get the closure we need,” Clark said, with her voice breaking. “We already have to bury him and never see him again.”
Also speaking at the press conference was prominent national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been hired by Skinner’s family.
According to Crump, Skinner’s father had approached officers directly after the shooting to tell them the victim was his son. Officers then maced Skinner’s father, Durrell Dollard, in his face.
The city did not immediately respond to questions about the incident.
Crump also noted that police took Skinner to ChristianaCare in Wilmington that night. Working at the hospital at the time was the teen’s mother, Rashai Skinner.
Rashai Skinner spoke briefly at the family’s press conference Thursday. With her voice quivering, she noted that Kadir Skinner’s middle name is Assad, which means lion. Then speaking to police, she said “you guys have woken up the lioness.”
“And I’m not going to stop fighting for my son,” she said.
Asked if the family plans to sue the city or police department, Crump – who in the past had represented the family of George Floyd, among others – said they “plan on exploring every possible legal parameter to get full justice.”
