Authorities believe that Thomas “TJ” Siderio was unarmed and posed no threat to officers when he was shot dead.
A former Philadelphia police officer was charged with murdering a 12-year-old boy with a fatal shot in the back during a chaotic chase in early March.
Authorities say Edsaul Mendoza, 26, was involved in a “tactically pointless” manhunt for Thomas “TJ” Siderio and shot him despite knowing he was unarmed.
Mendoza was arrested on Sunday (1/5).
Mendoza was part of a group of four plainclothes police officers who identified Thomas and a 17-year-old friend, identified as “NK” in court documents, on March 1, according to the filing of the facts released by the Philadelphia district attorney. Agents believed NK was “concretely linked” to a stolen firearm investigation.
Agents tried to stop the boys. Then “one shot was fired” and smashed the rear passenger window, the presentation added. And when the boys tried to escape, Mendoza ran after Thomas and fired three shots at him.
According to the document, the third shot occurred despite Mendoza knowing that Thomas’ gun had fallen from about 10 meters away. Thomas had stopped running when the last shot was fired.
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“But he still shot him in the back, killing him.”
Mendoza was sacked by the police shortly after the incident. The head of the company at the time said that their use of force policies were violated.
According to Krasner, most of the evidence against Mendoza stems from video footage of the shooting, which will not be released until approved by a judge. He described the video as “disturbing to watch” and said Thomas was “mainly face down on the pavement” and possibly surrendered.
Mendoza was detained on Sunday (2/5) without the possibility of bail. A preliminary hearing was held on 16 May.
No public defender could be found to represent him at the bail hearing held on Monday (5/2). A police support agency said they would now provide him with a lawyer.
Thomas’ great-grandmother, Mary Siderio, said in an interview with a local subsidiary of US television station CBS that she was “happy” to hear about the allegations against Mendoza.
“My heart is broken, I can’t sleep,” she said. “None of us can sleep. It’s terrible.”
source: Noticias
