Dash camera video shows Anchorage police officers fatally shooting man

Newly released police dash camera footage shows the deadly police shooting of an Anchorage, Alaska, man in 2019 after he reached into his waistband to retrieve what was later determined to be a BB gun.

The video, released exclusively to NBC News by a lawyer for the family of the man, shows the moments before and after Bishar Hassan, 31, was fatally shot by three Anchorage police officers on April 1, 2019.

In the video, Hassan is seen walking down a street when the officers, riding in three separate vehicles, pull over to stop him. Officers believed he matched the description of a man reported to have been waving a gun, according to a report from the state Office of Special Prosecutions, which investigated the case.

The officers exit their vehicles and as Hassan walks toward them, he pulls an object that appears to be a gun from his waistband, the video shows.

Officers immediately fired their weapons, killing him. The video also shows that officers didn’t provide first aid to Hassan for at least two minutes after the shooting. The Anchorage Police Department did not return multiple requests for comment.

The object Hassan was holding was later determined to be a “real-like replica BB or pellet gun modeled after a 9 mm handgun,” according to a report from the Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions.

The shooting raises questions about reasonableness and reaction time in police use of force and highlights concerns about whether officers afford the same benefit of the doubt to Black people carrying guns as non-Blacks. A similar discussion has surrounded the shooting of Amir Locke, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police as they carried out a no-knock warrant. An attorney for Locke’s family said he had no past criminal history and legally possessed the firearm he was holding at the time of his death.

Rex Lamont Butler, a lawyer representing Hassan’s family in a civil lawsuit, said Hassan was illegally stopped and that the fatal shooting wasn’t justified. The family filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit in March against Anchorage and the three police officers involved: Nathan Lewis, Brett Eggiman and Matthew Hall.

Pamela Weiss, an attorney representing Anchorage and the three police officers in the civil case, declined to comment.

“He had his palm up with the gun in his hand. He was showing them that it was a toy,” Butler said, adding that Hassan sometimes had difficulty communicating because English was his second language. “The video sells itself in something not being right here.”

An investigation into the shooting determined that none of the officers involved would face criminal charges in Hassan’s death. The attorney general’s office did not return requests for comment.

Darnall wrote that Hassan did not stop walking toward the officers, despite multiple commands to do so, and instead “reached into his right pants waistband and began pulling up (what) appeared to be a handgun.”

“Hassan’s motion was completed in one smooth, quick, movement. As Hassan began to extend the gun towards Officer Hall, Officer Hall, Officer Lewis, and Officer Eggiman all fired their weapons at him,” the report said.

Generally, officers in these situations can use deadly force if they reasonably perceive they are in danger of physical harm or death, said Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

“At the time of when the officer makes the decision, what is known to him or her at that point is all that matters. And so if a person doesn’t speak English as a first language or that the person had mental health issues in this case would be pretty much irrelevant. There’s no way that the officer would know that,” he said. “What it will come down to would be whether or not when he pulled the gun.”

Alaska does not require people who carry guns to have a permit, nor does the state have laws prohibiting anyone 21 or older from carrying it concealed or open.
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