Cincinnati police chief: Video of fatal shooting of unarmed black man by police 'not good'

theGRIO REPORT - Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell has seen the video from a University of Cincinnati police officer's body camera in the fatal shooting on an unarmed black man. His assessment? It's "not good."

Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell has seen the video from a University of Cincinnati police officer’s body camera in the fatal shooting on an unarmed black man.

His assessment? It’s “not good.”

It seems like an obvious point to make, but it’s also a rare one, especially coming from police leadership during these situations.

“The video is not good,” Blackwell said of the the shooting death of 43-year-old Samuel Dubose by UC Officer Ray Tensing, which took place during a traffic stop. “I think the city manager has said that also publicly. I’ll leave it there.”

Blackwell continued, telling WCPO-TV:

I don’t want to put my personal feelings out prematurely.I just hope that the right thing continues to be done in this investigation and that we’re able to move forward from this and allow this to be a moment of learning and teaching for our city.

Blackwell also noted that it was possible that unrest would follow in the area once the video was released.

City Manager Harry Black echoed Blackwell’s sentiments.

“It’s not a good situation,” Black said. “It’s a tragic situation, someone has died that did not necessarily need to die.”

University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono also released a statement on the incident Monday:

This morning, several senior leaders of the University of Cincinnati met with members of the City Manager’s Advisory Group to hear their thoughts and perspectives about how best to move forward together in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. As the result of multiple conversations this past week with community leaders, which were reiterated this morning,  the university is initiating a process to hire an independent external reviewer to examine UC Police Department policies, procedures and practices. We also are moving forward with the creation of a community advisory panel.  These are important steps to create an enhanced environment of openness and healing.

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