University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing has been charged with murder after footage was released showing the death of Samuel Dubose. The news comes ten days after Dubose was shot in the head during a traffic stop, marking only the 4th time all year an officer has been charged with murder after killing someone while on duty.
At the time of the incident, Officer Tensing was wearing a body cam, here is the footage from the traffic stop that cost Dubose his life.
Officer Tensing stopped Samuel Dubose after seeing that there was no front license plate on his car. Prior to the release of the video, it was being reported that Dubose was uncooperative when stopped, refusing to provide his license and giving Tensing a bottle of alcohol instead. Then it was stated that a struggle ensued and Dubose accelerated the car in an attempt to flee, pulling Tensing along with him, forcing Tensing to draw his weapon and fire to prevent himself from being injured.
After watching the video, you see the discrepancies plain as day in what Tensing filed in his report. Dubose handed the bottle of sealed alcohol over after Tensing asked him for it. Then Dubose asked what he was being pulled over for when not having the front license plate on his car, wasn’t illegal. Not to mention, Tensing had the license plate in the glove compartment. The fatal shot to Dubose’s head, was not in fact due to the officer fearing for his safety. It was after Tensing attempted to pull the door open, Dubose started the car and Tensing drew his weapon and fired into Dubose’s head at point blank range.
Dubose died with his foot on the gas pedal.
It was so unnecessary for this to occur,” Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said at an afternoon news conference. “This is the first time that we’ve thought, ‘This is without question a murder.’ He wasn’t dealing with someone who was wanted for murder. He was dealing with someone who didn’t have a front license plate. This was, in the vernacular, a pretty chicken-crap stop. I’m treating him like a murderer.