No rioting, looting, stupid social media hashtags or protests for this poor man. And the killer, who retired as it often happens in such cases, fought hard to hide the video of the killing for 2 years.
After killing unarmed man, Texas deputy told colleague: 'I just smoked a dude'It took nearly two years, and a federal lawsuit, for Wendy Tippitt to see the police video that captured the fatal shooting of her 29-year-old son.
Timothy Michael Randall was on the phone with his mother when a police car pulled up behind his Nissan Altima with its lights flashing. It was just after 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 14, 2022, and Randall was heading to his cousin’s house after a night out.
Randall, 29, pulled over and hung up with his mom. Sgt. Shane Iversen of the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office walked up to the Altima and told Randall that he had run a stop sign, police dash camera footage shows. Randall denied doing so, and Iversen ordered him out of the car.
What began as a routine traffic stop, on a country road two hours east of Dallas, quickly spun out of control. As Randall was stepping out of the car, he put his wallet in his back pocket and adjusted his waistband.
Iversen dug his hands into the front of Randall’s pants and then told him to put his hands behind his back, the dash cam footage shows. Randall kept his arms raised.
“Officer, I don’t have anything on me,” he said.
“Officer, please, can you tell me what I’m under arrest for?” Randall asked moments later.
Iversen didn’t respond. Instead, he wrestled Randall to the pavement.
“Officer, please,” Randall pleaded again as he struggled to get to his feet.
Then Iversen threw Randall to the ground again. He landed on his back several feet away, but the momentum brought him back to his feet. Randall began to turn to run away from Iversen, who had already pulled out his gun and was pointing it at Randall.
“Get down,” Iversen yelled as he fired one shot, striking Randall in the chest.
Randall continued to run down the street but collapsed face down. Iversen radioed for help and then tried to render medical aid, but Randall died on the pavement. The bullet had torn through his ribs, lungs and heart, according to autopsy records.
After another deputy arrived minutes later, Iversen, then 57, returned to his patrol car and phoned a colleague.
“I just smoked a dude,” he said in a hushed voice.
In the following days and weeks, Randall’s mother searched for answers in vain, calling the Texas Rangers and the Rusk County district attorney’s office. She had no idea how her son wound up dead after a police traffic stop. Her first shock came two months after the shooting when a grand jury returned a no bill in the case, meaning it chose not to indict Iversen for killing an unarmed man.
The second came last summer when Iversen's lawyers turned over the dashcam video after she filed a federal lawsuit. Nearly two years after the shooting, she finally got to see, in brutal detail, what happened in the moments before her youngest son was killed.
Iversen quietly retired after the shooting and fought in court to keep the video from being made public. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/killing-unarmed-man-texas-deputy-told-colleague-just-smoked-dude-rcna194909
