Newnan shooting lawyers dispute officer account

First, lawyers for the family of an 18-year-old man killed this month by a Noonan police officer say he was not armed at the time of the shooting. Thanks for joining us. I'm Courtney Bryant. Hello and welcome. I'm Tom Haynes. They met with the Coweta County District Attorney's Office today to view that officer's body camera video. Fox 5's Doug Evans has the story. The lawyers for the family of 18-year-old Zedarius Dorsey conceded that he was likely armed at the time he ran away from a Noonan police officer because a gun was found at the scene of the shooting. But it's their contention that that stolen firearm was not in Dorsey's hand when the officer says he saw it and fired his gun, killing the teen. Lawyers for Dorsey's family say they saw the officer's body cam video, as well as other surveillance footage near the scene of the October 3rd officer-involved shooting. They challenged the officer's story, saying Dorsey was just a passenger in a car. And when the officer approached that car to talk to the men inside, including Dorsey. The teen had a legal right to walk away, even run away, because it was not a traffic stop. And why that's very important, because at no time was Zedarius suspected of a crime. That's what you call a tier one encounter, where an officer can approach you, and the Supreme Court of the United States is very clear, if you can walk away, you can run away. Zedarius exercised his option to run away. The attorneys also claim that the gun was found 42 feet away from Dorsey's body. At the time. He says the officer saw the gun, gave the command to drop it and fired his weapon. They say the teen had likely already thrown it down. You know, the video, when the video was released, is very difficult. It may break it down screen by screen, but you're not going to find a weapon. And there is Zedarius' hand and the physics and the location of the weapon is inconsistent to the officer's statement that he had a gun at the time he shot. The GBI in its original news release on the shooting, said the officer saw Dorsey pull the gun from his waistband. They said the officer gave a command to drop the gun and then fired his weapon. This is the third public viewing of this officer's body-worn camera. The DA's office has previously shown it to the family, to the attorneys now, and to community leaders a few hours later. DA Herb Cranford tells Fox 5 that He will release that video to the rest of the public as soon as the GBI finishes its autopsy report. I'm Doug Evans, Fox 5 News in Newnan.