Original subtitles

- Previously on "Philly D.A."...

- There has not been prosecution

of police misconduct for 30 years.

- What about all the officers that say, "You know what?

This District Attorney's not gonna have my back"?

- Weapon.

- Some police even starting the hashtag

#NotMyDA.

- Nobody writes up police paperwork to say,

"And then I lost my cool and busted his nose."

- The FOP is very powerful.

They look at Larry as opposed to everything they stand for.

- That is a culture that needs to have its spine snapped.

[microphone feedback]

- Today, we are here to announce

the Zero Waste and Litter Action Plan.

[cheers and applause]

- I want to thank everybody involved in this process.

And sometimes, when you talk about zero waste,

and you figure, "Oh, okay, just put the recycling can out

and, you know, don't litter..."

- Excuse me, Councilman. - Yeah.

- [inaudible] since you haven't spoken

or answered any of our demands.

I'm sorry, people. We'll only be a second.

- Okay. - We're here to deal

with the death of David Jones.

Now we're asking you, where do you stand on the death

and the shooting death of David Jones?

- Do you want to have a meeting?

- I want you to say it in front of everybody,

where you stand. - You're not gonna dictate

the terms of our discussion. - Then we gonna keep right here

while you're talking.

It's unacceptable.

We're not going away.

We want justice for David Jones.

- This is the Week of Rage. [chanting indistinctly]

- Black and brown people

are under attack by law enforcement.

- A Black man was shot.

I know you don't give a damn about that.

- Protestors showed up at the home of a police officer.

- Out in the far northeast, in front of the home

of the officer Ryan Pownall.

- Justice for David Jones!

- Justice for David Jones!

- Justice for David Jones!

- Justice for David Jones!

- Listen. - Does he have a record?

This is why we can't have a conversation.

- [bleep] you. [bleep] you. - You're not my type.

- Why you guys trying to come up here today?

- We want the cold killer cop

who murdered our dear brother David Jones

to come out and surrender,

so he can be charged with murder.

- When you go to work each day,

you shouldn't have to worry

that a pack of rabid animals

will suddenly show up at your home

and openly threaten your family,

as we saw last week.

- If we don't get no justice, we shuttin' it down.

What about David Jones, 2018?

We haven't heard nothing yet.

- We want a statement from Larry Krasner.

- He's the District Attorney now.

- He's the District Attorney. He could make a statement.

- Any evidence that in past shootings,

crimes have been committed by police?

- I would be one lousy D.A. if I were to sit here and say,

without having reviewed the evidence

on these particular cases, what I think.

We have to look at the evidence and follow the evidence fairly.

- We want justice

or we're shutting everything down.

- Larry Krasner, the inauguration was good.

Everything was pretty. It did look nice.

But it's time to go the [bleep] to work.

[car horn blaring]

- Say his name! All: David Jones!

- Say his name! All: David Jones!

- Say his name! All: David Jones!

- Say his name! All: David Jones!

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

♪

- The big story on "Action News"...

- Philadelphia Police shoot and kill a man

who appeared to be running away from an officer.

- Officer Ryan Pownall observed David Jones

in the Juniata section

of Philadelphia on his dirt bike.

- Witness accounts of it being driven recklessly led

a Philadelphia police officer to confront him.

- Pownall was transporting three people

to the Special Victims Unit,

but for some reason decided,

against police protocol,

to then stop Jones

in a parking lot and frisk him.

- That confrontation led to a weapon being found on Jones.

- Then when a struggle ensued,

Pownall tried to fire his gun,

which jammed as Jones started to run away.

- When he was running away from that officer,

he was empty-handed.

- Pownall then fired three times,

striking Jones in the back and killing him.

- Jones' gun was later found 25 feet

in the opposite direction

from where the officer was firing at him.

[somber music]

♪

- [whistling tune]

[distant sirens wailing]

[door creaking]

- What's the weather in Texas today, do you know?

- So, Dallas, 67.

Austin, 68.

And those are the only two Texas cities I keep on my...

- Pretty good. - Phone.

- All right, so what are we discussing today?

- We just did a review of all the cases yesterday.

We've got 45 cases, all of which are, you know,

somehow related to murder, mayhem, and public corruption.

For cops, there's a bunch of slower burn kind of things

that might be of interest to you.

Is that fair?

- Mm-hmm.

- Um...

[tapping on table]

Can you go off?

[suspenseful ambient music]

♪

- I was good at my job as a public defender.

But there comes a time when, given the opportunity,

about bitching about how badly broken the system is,

that you have to be willing to suck it up

and to actually try and change it,

or you don't get to bitch anymore.

Abuse of power is a thing that, like,

makes me more angry than everything else.

And I said, "Look, Larry, I'm 41 years old.

"I've been around.

"I don't want to prosecute car thieves.

I want to be in Special Investigations."

We do all kinds of political and municipal corruption

which I remind people of.

♪

Everybody just says, "You prosecute cops."

[tense music]

♪

[turn signal ticking]

- This is, like, all the area,

like, DJ grew up.

This is his neighborhood.

When he died, it changed a lot of people's lives.

He was the one that everyone would call.

My son, of course.

Just the whole neighborhood.

[serene synthesizer music]

♪

He was my soul mate.

He was just so easy to talk to.

He was, like, the most non-judgmental person

I've ever met.

My son graduated eighth grade.

♪

DJ, he drove trucks.

He came home for the graduation.

The graduation was actually the day before he passed away,

the day before he was killed.

That was the last picture he posted on his Instagram.

He said, "When you realize the young pup

"is turning into a young man.

"Congratulations. My guy going to high school.

Getting old. Love this kid."

♪

- Just having someone stripped away from you

the day after your graduation,

that pain that you still walk with,

that... it even becomes a trigger to you to hear that name.

It puts you in that place again.

People don't understand that.

Even though he wasn't my biological dad,

he was my father.

♪

- This is that bike that I hate.

This is him selling the bike.

"For serious people only. Bike for sale."

If he had a gun on him,

it's because the likelihood of him

getting robbed for the money and the bike is high.

It never even crossed his mind, probably,

that in the five minutes it would have took him to ride

that dirt bike to the park and make that transaction,

that he would encounter a police officer,

and that this situation would occur.

♪

It all could have been avoided.

DJ would still be here.

That bike would be sold.

DJ would still be a truck driver.

My family would still be whole.

But that's not how it happened.

[lively theme music]

♪

- The big story on "Action News" tonight

is the police-involved shooting

of a man on a small motorcycle,

forcing the police commissioner

to confront a very difficult situation head on.

- There were serious policy violations

that were committed on video.

In order to fire at a fleeing suspect,

there must be an imminent threat of death

or serious physical injury

to the officer or another person.

Because Jones never looked back at Pownall in the video,

and his hands were empty,

he posed no imminent

or immediate threat to Pownall.

- The police commissioner just finished a press conference.

The Philadelphia police officer

is being fired from his job.

- Demonstrators have actually gathered outside

of this police building.

They say that's not enough.

They actually want this officer

to be charged with murder.

- I feel as though they completed half their job.

You know, I want this cop arrested.

That's it.

- The cops, they get fired.

[tense music]

The FOP pays for these high-priced lawyers,

they fund them, go to the arbitration,

they're right back in.

- The police commissioner and the mayor

don't have the last say

on the cops that patrol the street.

This guy may go through arbitration

if the D.A.'s Office don't convict.

♪

[car horn honks]

- A union can be a great thing.

But when I saw, at certain points,

it almost seemed to undermine the justice system.

I was working for the Philadelphia Police Department

for eight years.

And I've had the unique ability

to have seen so many personnel files,

to have seen so much discipline meted out.

♪

It was clear that some of these arbitrators

had no idea, nor did they care,

about what was the practices

that police officers violated.

And then they would put them back to work.

♪

I know that there are police officers

who shouldn't be on the force.

- No justice! All: No peace!

- No justice! All: No peace!

- No justice! All: No peace!

- No justice! All: No peace!

- We are asking Larry Krasner

and his office to move swiftly.

You ran on progressive change.

We're holding you to it.

- Ryan Pownall still has not been charged

for the murder of David Jones.

Either you think it was a just shooting

or it was an unjust shooting, Larry Krasner.

So your office has to make the decision.

[sirens wailing]

[tense music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- All right.

Excuse me for a moment.

- In the past, the D.A.'s Office

typically sided with the police.

And the last time a police officer

was charged with homicide

was 1999.

Two judges threw the charges out of court

before it could get to trial.

[door creaks]

- It's very difficult to get convictions in these cases.

Judges react negatively to them.

Juries tend to believe what the police say.

A lot of institutional reasons,

structural reasons why it doesn't happen.

[no audible dialogue]

In Pennsylvania, it's even more difficult

because our Crimes Code has provided police

with the authority to use deadly force

that is greater

than what's permitted by the U.S. Constitution.

♪

- These are very dangerous streets,

and the police do have to use force.

But there's a lot of police officers who,

in my opinion,

got away with murder and manslaughter.

[keyboard clacking]

- [exhales deeply]

[abrasive percussion music]

Thank you.

- No, thank you. Um...

Talking points.

[elevator chimes]

♪

- We have a judge?

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct chatter]

[tense music]

♪

- Yep. - All right.

- [exhales deeply]

- All right. So, straight to the podium.

- Let you guys know, they snapping pictures

as soon as you open that door.

- Okay.

♪

[camera shutters clicking]

- Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

It is the duty of the District Attorney's Office

to represent the Commonwealth.

That means every person in the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth includes the family of David Jones.

It also includes Officer Pownall.

We are applying justice evenhandedly today

and will do so moving forward.

The investigating grand jury found

that, by firing his gun in the direction of traffic,

Pownall recklessly endangered

other people in his vicinity,

that at the time

of Jones' flight,

Jones was not a danger to anyone,

and that Jones' death was not necessary

to secure the apprehension of Jones.

The District Attorney's Office, in fact, has filed

a complaint this morning,

and that complaint brings the following charges:

First, criminal homicide;

second, possession of an instrument of crime;

and third, recklessly endangering another person.

Officer Pownall has turned himself in this morning.

- Is this an absolute clear-cut case?

Was there possibly some reason for him to fire on this man?

- The best answer that I can give you

is that I and my team

are very confident

that we are making

the right charging decision.

Thank you.

[camera shutters clicking]

- Right now, a former Philadelphia police officer

is sitting in jail.

He's being charged with murder.

- The question had been whether or not the D.A.

was going to pursue charges.

Was it the right call for Larry Krasner?

- He wouldn't bring this case if he didn't think

he could get the conviction.

And that's why we have a trial.

♪

- This is what was feared

when this guy was elected.

We'll see what evidence surfaces.

But I am convinced,

with the mob in Philadelphia,

you have a much easier time if you're a criminal

than if you're a cop and you're gonna be on trial.

- It's absurd.

A 12-year veteran

who protected the community for years

is gonna be held without bail.

Officer Pownall was out there,

encountered a felon with a stolen gun

terrorizing the community on a four-wheeler.

We will have a vigorous defense

and expect him to be cleared

of all charges

and get his job back.

So with that, I'd like to bring up Ryan's brother.

- I want to thank everybody for all their support,

especially the FOP

and all of his fellow officers.

And we look forward to bringing Ryan home.

Thank you.

- I don't believe any officer leaves to go to work

every day to take a life.

But we know how it's gonna be for the coming years.

When you do, we're gonna be second-guessed.

So just be careful out there, be safe,

and we're here for you.

Thank you.

[applause]

[dramatic music]

♪

- When I first heard about the case,

one of the things that really struck me was:

why is he out there on the motorcycle,

and why does he have a gun?

You need to argue this, and we need to prove it.

As I saw it, he's not out there being a hellion.

He's trying to sell a crappy motorcycle

that's not tuned right

or maybe has some kind of an engine problem.

So when he's zipping up and down in the vicinity

of a gas station, he is doing this

because he's trying to get the thing running right

so that he can sell it in an eBay exchange.

He has the gun because so many people get killed

making vehicular eBay exchanges.

And that has happened in Philadelphia.

It has happened repeatedly.

- Easy robbery target. - Right.

- We all know that's why he did it.

Everybody that knows him knows that.

- We should prove that.

We should prove that.

We should find a way

so the jury doesn't think what they want.

What they want is that this

is some criminal hellion

running around with a gun in his waistband,

who was just causing trouble.

He's not a human being.

I think it is legitimate

to at least take a shot at this

and to spend some time thinking about these theories.

Let me tell you something.

You don't get that in, you lose.

Okay? Just so we're clear.

If you don't humanize this guy and humanize him

from the beginning,

we're just wasting our time.

[child squeals]

[dramatic orchestral music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- I parked over here.

- The judge ruled it's not a first-degree murder case.

It's a third-degree murder case.

And he's getting bail.

[camera shutter clicking]

- Who else?

- Everybody... everybody good? Everybody here?

- The court ruled that the presentment

does not support the charge of first-degree murder.

Um, we're obviously extremely satisfied

with the court's decision in that regard.

We will now prepare this case.

A jury will find that Ryan Pownall

was justified in his actions

on the day of this incident,

and he'll be found not guilty.

Thank you. That's all I have.

- Wait... how soon do you think you'll have him out?

- Cousin. [phones ringing]

[indistinct radio chatter]

- The defense is trying to make it

between Larry Krasner and the FOP,

which this is not.

Every time we come to this courtroom,

I got to fight with the cops in the room

to make room for the family.

The T-shirts that the police had on

said "Pownall we have your back,"

which was blatantly disrespectful to the family.

He shot the boy in the back.

- You want to give a statement?

- Yeah. I'll give a statement. - All right.

- So... - Your name, ma'am?

- I'm forgetting my name.

Donna Clement-Jackson.

- And who are you to David Jones?

- I'm David Jones' godmother.

- Yeah, okay. Go ahead, ma'am.

- You know, today, the judge... Excuse me.

Today, the judge gave Pownall

a temporary pass.

He allowed him to go home

to his families and friends.

You know, but we know God's delay is not a denial,

and we still stand in our faith,

and we stand fast that justice will be done.

- Gonna talk to the mom right now, okay?

Please state your name, ma'am.

- My name is Doretha Crosby.

I have no comment.

Just taking everything in right now.

- How do you process that he dropped it

from first-degree to third-degree?

- No comment.

- She has no comment on that. - She has no comment on that.

- That's a situation that the judge made,

and for us, we don't care what the charges are

as long as there's a charge

because no charge is gonna bring David back.

But as long as we are taking it to trial, that's all we need.

That's all we have left to say.

- Before you go, Miss Crosby, just what's in your heart?

Just tell us. This is your chance.

What's in your heart? - She doesn't want to talk.

- She doesn't want to talk to you, sir. That's it.

- She lost her son. - This is devastating.

- No matter what happens between now and then,

he will be found guilty.

Thank you. - Thank you.

[camera shutters clicking]

[indistinct chatter]

[serene music]

♪

- Piece of me still fighting myself with it,

like, trying to believe it and...

And, I don't know, just dealing with it.

It's a lot.

If I'm feeling bad about something,

David always tried to cheer my up.

He always know what to say.

He would call me just to stay up.

"Mom, I'm driving.

I need to stay up. Talk to me."

He'd call me 2:00, 3:00 in the morning,

just to keep him up while he was driving.

[melodic rap music playing]

♪

- David drove trucks for a living.

He just enjoyed going from state to state.

He wanted young, Black boys

to experience that same thing.

He's like, "I'm going to get me a fleet of trucks."

He was like, "These young boys don't know they can do

what I'm doing and have a better life."

So that was the type of person he was.

- Mm-hmm.

- That was the type of person he was.

[car horns blaring]

- Hello. - Yes.

- Hello!

How you doing?

- I'm good. How are you?

- Yeah. You and me both.

It's always something going on.

- Yeah. Ain't it?

- Hey. How are you?

[indistinct chatter]

- It's cold out there. - We'll go upstairs.

- Before things kick more into gear,

I wanted to explain the law a little bit

'cause I know I keep talking about it.

What do you need to know from me?

What's confusing? What's not?

- So, the charges

that they reduced...

- So, we're at third-degree,

um...

voluntary manslaughter,

involuntary manslaughter,

and the misdemeanor is the possession

of an instrument of crime, which is the...

- Mm-hmm. The gun.

- The gun. - Mm-hmm.

- And recklessly endangering another person.

- So, they... when they rule,

they rule on each one of those separately?

- Mm-hmm. - Like, he could get not guilty

for third-degree murder,

but found guilty of manslaughter.

- Right.

This is why that's important.

It's because the self-defense statute...

[sighs]

What it says is that

a peace office... any law enforcement officer...

Is justified in using deadly force

only when he believes

that such force is necessary

to prevent death or serious bodily injury

to himself or another person,

or...

when he believes both

these next two things...

He has to believe both of these things:

such force is necessary to prevent the arrest

from being defeated

by resistance or escape, right?

So, David's running away...

and that the person to be arrested

has either committed a forcible felony...

Doesn't apply... - Mm-hmm.

- Attempting to escape and possesses a deadly weapon,

which would be the gun, right?

That's the one they're gonna say applies...

or otherwise indicates that he'll endanger human life

or inflict serious bodily injury

unless arrested without delay.

So he's gonna say that Pownall believed

that his use of deadly force

was absolutely necessary

because Mr. Jones...

You know, David was gonna get away.

He was gonna defeat the arrest,

and that he had that gun.

Right?

And the argument is gonna be,

how the hell did you think he had that gun

when it was 25 feet in the other direction?

- Right. And he couldn't be a danger

to nobody else with nothing.

And then he put his hands up,

and there was nothing for you to have to shoot him again.

There's a piece in there that you...

that you kind of said, and I'm like,

"Y'all, that gives them too much freedom."

- Right.

Because it basically says that you're allowed

to shoot people in the back when they're running away.

If you think they've got a gun,

you can shoot them in the back.

I think that's a little crazy.

- Mm-hmm.

And we'll talk. As we move forward,

I'll just prepare you for some other stuff that may happen

if they do try to assassinate David's character

and stuff like that

from my experience of my own trial.

- Okay. - Okay.

I don't want to say I'm satisfied now.

I am... content

with where we are right now,

and I think it's gonna lead to a guilty verdict.

That's my prayer, anyway.

- They get away with everything.

I just don't want them to get away with it now.

That's all. - Yeah.

- So.

[somber music]

- I do think that David Jones' family

would agree with me on this.

You never actually win a murder trial.

You can't. It's impossible.

A human being is dead.

The best you can do is provide closure

or some modicum of justice,

just in the process.

- All right. - All right.

- Thank you, Trace.

- Ope, you're welcome.

♪

- All right. Well, let me say this.

First of all, I'm delighted to see you.

I'm actually really excited

and supportive of certain things

your organization's doing,

including standing up

when officers are told

by other officers to tell lies.

- The Guardian Civic League

is a civic organization of active

and retired law enforcement professionals.

It was formed in 1956.

And it was formed in the support of Black cops

who felt that they were being mistreated.

In the police department,

they got you as the killer cop person.

That's how they painting him.

"Oh, he's gonna come after the cops."

I said, "Well, his job is to lock people up.

"If you are out there doing something crazy, guess what?

You get locked up too."

And this... this brings us to what I need you to do.

We invited you to the Guardian Civic League.

To me, you would be able to put to rest

the rumor mill,

which I believe is always 100% wrong,

especially in the police department,

that you're not coming after them

in a malicious way,

that you basically can support them

if they doing the right thing.

It needs to get over to them,

"I'm not out to get y'all.

"But trust me... If you're out there doing it,

"it is my job to prosecute you,

"just like every other citizen

that commits a crime out here in the city."

- It is what it is.

I don't expect everybody to agree with me.

That's not the point.

But it would be nice if they told the truth,

or they were accurate, and they didn't just

deliberately undermine the office.

That would be helpful. Interesting.

- That's gonna be real interesting.

[bright orchestral music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- So, first and foremost,

the policy of the Philadelphia Police Department

is that all of our officers hold the highest regard

for the sanctity of human life, dignity,

and liberty of all persons.

Every time that we interact with the community,

whether it's somebody that's calling for a complaint,

or if we're engaging a suspect that's suspected of a crime,

we have to hold ourselves to that standard.

And then by using tactics and communication,

hopefully we're able to de-escalate situations

and minimize or mitigate against the need

to use lethal force.

Any questions?

[person coughs]

- Excellent.

[indistinct chatter]

[dramatic synthesizer music]

♪

- Step up. Grab a weapon.

Point it at the wall.

Load, charge, then holster.

Okay. Grab the spare magazine.

- The police department has tried to address

their officers shooting people.

As a result, they shoot less people.

- What we're looking for is making sure

that you guys are communicating

with one another via police radio.

- Nevertheless, a bad cop

can do a lot of damage.

And the question is,

what is the police department doing about that?

- Knock on the door, scenario begins.

[whistle blares]

- Chris, you got to go! - No, I'm not going anywhere!

Where do you want me to go? I just got out!

- He just got out of jail. I let him stay here

for a couple days, and it's just not working out.

[all speaking at once] - Where am I supposed to go?

Where am I supposed to go?

- Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

- Taser! Taser! Taser!

- One. Two. Three. Four.

- "It's just a matter of training.

"We'll put more money into training.

We'll put more money into training."

No, what you need to do is put some money

into disciplining the police officers

and discharging them.

And what you also need to do is put some money in

to make sure that you change

the police contract and state law

that enables the police to have this arbitration process.

- Tired of this, man!

Where am I supposed to go?

Where am I supposed to go? What?

- Put your hands up! Put your hands up!

Keep them up. Keep them up.

Take one step forward.

- You're the one that asked me to come and stay here.

Now you want me to leave.

- You need to go. - Hands out, palms up.

Don't move.

Don't move.

♪

[whistle blares]

- All right. Good job.

Way to call it out. Establishing roles.

Just let radio know what you have,

and then you get the numbers on your side.

- If you're the person whose son or daughter,

or yourself, was on the bad side,

the receiving side of any kind of unjustified force,

you don't care that the numbers went down.

Those numbers don't mean anything.

You gotta... you want it right all the time.

Are we ever gonna be perfect? No.

But our goal should always be remembering that person.

- Larry Krasner... We invited him to come

and have a one-on-one with you all.

As before, rumors in the city

about a person you have not talked to

about they policy is just wrong.

So he's here to answer your questions today.

Like I said, get it from the person,

so you'll know the facts,

and not live by rumors on this job.

- What I would like you to do, if you're willing,

is ask me the hard questions.

You know, I have great respect

for honest, hard-working, decent police officers,

and that, in my mind,

is the overwhelming majority.

And I got no respect

for lying, cheating, and stealing lawyers,

doctors, and cops.

That's... that's the reality.

And I'm not... I'm not gonna play around.

I consider everybody to be accountable

including the guy who used to sit in my office,

who's now sitting in Oklahoma

in a prison cell.

So that's where I'm coming from.

- Appreciate you taking these questions

forthrightly and answering them.

Doesn't seem like you're BS-ing to me.

With that being said... and mine's kind of a little loaded

'cause I've been waiting to talk to you...

- Yeah. - I understand you ran

on this mass incarceration premise.

You're gonna do whatever you can to stop young brothers

from getting convicted at disproportionate rate

than their white counterparts.

With that being said,

the sentencing that's been going on,

the deals that's been made since you took office...

Can you tell me what the thinking is,

what your office has, with regards to sentencing?

- Oh, on the issue involving homicides,

I stand by every decision.

When we make a mistake, we're gonna own it.

We're gonna try to change it.

But once again, there's a politics around this,

and there's people who want to say that we're crazy

and we're giving away the store.

That may not be the truth,

but it serves their political purpose to say it,

so they're putting it out there.

- How many more questions?

All right. Let's go.

- I got 20-plus years on the job.

I've been around.

People in here who know me

know the type of cop that I am.

I put in work.

So my problem, as a supervisor,

is my guys don't trust you

as far as they can throw you,

so therefore the production goes down.

The people who suffer

are the citizens.

I see you go after Pownall.

I know Pownall.

The cops on the streets see you coming after them,

so they don't want to work,

'cause they don't want to put themselves out there.

So...

what am I to tell them?

- What do I suggest? I suggest you don't

shoot unarmed people in the back.

That's what I suggest.

You know, I'm gonna guess you never did that.

- No. My shooting's clean.

- The reality is, people make mistakes.

There are accidental shootings.

But it wasn't,

"Let me stand here and aim

and then carefully re-aim..."

- Mm.

- "At an unarmed person

who is running away."

Yeah. So, you know,

there are specific facts in all these situations.

I mean, if police officers feel

that they shouldn't have to do their job,

then they shouldn't have that job.

If they feel that it should be okay to shoot

unarmed people in the back, then they're wrong.

At the time that he was charged,

we had, I think,

19 shootings by police under consideration.

18 of them resulted in no charges.

His resulted in charges.

And you would have thought, from listening to the FOP,

that it was the end of the world.

I think we're elevating all of you

by saying there is a standard of professionalism.

There is a line.

There are honest mistakes, but there are also crimes.

And we... you know, we, as a society,

we, in Philadelphia, we, in the D.A.'s Office

are not gonna say it's all okay,

because it's not all okay.

[keyboard clacking]

- So I have all of this press

about Pownall.

"Philadelphia Weekly" and "City & State PA"

published a joint investigation

reporting that Pownall had been the subject

of 15 civilian complaints

between January '13 and March 2018,

the third-highest total

of any officer on the force.

The third-highest

of 6,600-plus

sworn officers.

If one of your top three

isn't on your early warning list, like,

I don't know what to tell you.

He was out on patrol.

[tense music]

♪

The fact of the matter is,

the on-the-daily police misconduct in communities

just gets a pass, and nobody's addressed it.

If the police department had doubled down

on some of the misconduct, maybe we wouldn't be here.

But we are.

Like, when you go back and look at the scene photos

and the video, you can place the dirt bike

and the patrol car in your head

because they're over in this area.

- Right.

I'm also thinking that this is a really long way

to drive against traffic in the turning/parking lane.

♪

- And of course...

[sighs]

That was the camera that did not work.

And that was the other camera that did not work.

[sighs]

Either one of these cameras would have given us

the entirety of the story.

So.

[sighs] [bleep].

[indistinct chatter]

[door creaks]

[door creaks]

Okay.

Did you guys have any questions?

Or should we just get this video shown?

- Can we just get it moving? - All right.

You're gonna see David come in

on his bike up here. - Mm-hmm.

- And then you'll see the police car come this way.

And then it'll be off-screen.

And then you'll see the firing

and everything up in that area.

Okay?

And David will be running what looks to be towards us.

[mouse clicks]

[distant phone rings]

- [sighs]

[phone rings] - [cries softly]

[whispering] Turn it off.

- Turn it off.

[cell phone ringing] - [whispering] Turn it off.

- Turn it off.

- Do you guys want me to keep playing it?

- Go ahead. - Go ahead. Mm-hmm.

- Why is he bending his knee on him on all like that?

That's crazy.

- Yeah. What... what was...?

- They put... What are they doing?

- Yeah, what...?

- Look like they's trying to handcuff him or something.

[all speaking at once]

- Why they not... But why they not

putting him in the car?

- He's bending his arm all up.

Which one... Which one is Pownall?

Did he help put him in the car?

- He did.

- This is unbelievable.

- How is he justified to shoot him?

- That's the question.

- We're gonna argue that you can see

his hands when he's running. - Mm-hmm.

- He doesn't have anything in his hands.

Pownall tries to shoot him in the back, like,

directly in front of him...

tries to shoot him.

He doesn't because his gun jams.

Right?

And so he then takes a step back and racks it

to clear the jam.

And that is when you see

David run away.

Pownall clears the jam, and then as David is running,

he fires the additional three shots,

at least, two of which hit him.

- Fine line.

- So that's what this is all about?

This cop...

- I don't mean to say it like that.

- Saw him crossing him in front of him?

- No, I just think that he's racist,

being as though he shot somebody

in 2010 in the back.

It gotta be.

How many times can he shoot somebody

and keep getting put back on the force

and put back on... On the streets?

- On the street again.

- It doesn't make any sense.

I don't understand it.

[somber music]

♪

[birds chirping]

- I was approached

by a police officer and his partner

because they believed that I had narcotics in my hand,

which I showed them was a piece of paper.

But from my previous... Going back to my background

and my neighborhood and when I grew up

and how the police treated us,

I chose to run.

- By the time he started running,

he was in full flight, correct?

- Yes.

- Had you heard any shots fired?

- I thought I heard one.

- Do you know who fired it?

You knew it wasn't Carnell Williams, correct?

- I don't know who fired it.

- Well, did you ever lose sight of Carnell Williams?

- No.

- Did you ever see the gun out during this whole time?

- The only time I saw it was when we first stopped him.

- Okay, you never saw it again, correct?

- No.

- And in fact, when you arrested him,

he didn't have a gun on him, correct?

- When I placed him in custody, I searched him,

and no, he didn't have any... A gun on him.

- Okay. All right.

[light, ambient music]

♪

- I just was a person that wasn't trying to get caught

with the firearm.

And I threw the firearm.

And a cop that was behind me,

he started opening fire on me.

One went past my ear,

and the other one hit me in my back.

July 17th was the last day

I took my steps.

After I was shot,

Ryan Pownall was back on the force

like nothing happened.

He was back in the streets.

Back at active duty.

♪

I look at the news seven years later,

he killed somebody.

[dramatic synthesizer music]

♪

- The last 20 years of my career,

I spent investigating

just police-involved shootings,

so I knew Officer Pownall from this prior shooting

that I had investigated in 2010.

Because of the vast amount of shootings that I've done,

I've handled shootings where officers have had

multiple police discharges... And by multiple,

whether two, or some officers have had five, six.

In this David Jones case,

I was the first supervisor on location

and spoke with Officer Pownall.

Officer Pownall walked me through the incident.

It was a stressful event.

When I was speaking to him at the scene,

certainly he wasn't ecstatic

that he had just had to employ deadly force.

When we first hear about a person shot in the back,

the initial reaction is this must be a bad shooting

because an individual is running away from the officer

and therefore poses no threat.

[siren wailing]

In viewing Officer Pownall's actions,

if you weighed them against

Section 508 of the Crimes Code,

which governs an officer's use of force,

it appeared to me that he abided by those guidelines.

And I'm not an attorney,

but what he's been charged with to me

doesn't fit the crime, if you will.

So for that reason, yes,

he should be allowed to return

to his prior position in the police department.

[car horn blares]

♪

- Think about the U.S. Supreme Court

considering the following:

can a state legislature

write a statute

that makes it okay for police to do things

that the U.S. Supreme Court has said are unconstitutional?

- Yeah. - Can they do that?

- I think we should think about

arguing 508 as unconstitutional.

- Yeah, but I agree. That is not okay.

We have to file a [bleep] motion to eliminate...

it's not that complicated... And let her rule.

That's what we have to do.

♪

- It's a question of interpretation.

If you interpret the statute

in the broadest way possible,

it is unconstitutional

because you can't just shoot a person

who's fleeing a traffic stop

simply because they have a deadly weapon.

Right, right, right, right, right.

It's too vague. It's too broad.

You know, there has to be an imminent danger

to justify it.

- Whenever you have a case like this,

you have to recognize that you're up against institutions

that don't want to hold police officers accountable.

- Part of what is so maddening and at issue in this case

is that law enforcement officers get charged

so infrequently,

there just aren't cases.

They don't happen. Right?

Like, there's no body of law with...

To tell us how to look at that statute.

It just doesn't exist in a criminal context.

That law that we are dealing with,

I think got written in 1972.

I mean, you've got a model penal code

and a Crimes Code in Philly,

a lot of which is significantly pre-civil rights.

♪

[sighs]

- It's all getting interesting.

- So I'm gonna go forth and file.

Everything's been prepped.

And we just got to see what the court says about it.

- So listen, anything you need, just let me know, right?

- Yes. - All right.

- Mm-hmm.

♪

[indistinct chatter]

He calls me unethical.

That's nice.

[whispering] Oh, [bleep] you.

Yo. So they filed their answer.

That's just him, like,

yelling about how dare we,

and this is all because we've, you know,

you know, unethically ignored

mandates of 508, blah blah blah.

So. I don't know.

Let me know what you think.

Okay. Bye.

[suspenseful music]

♪

- Clearly, the existing law justifies his conduct.

The District Attorney's Office

decided to ignore the existing law.

- You can't rewrite the law to say,

"Well, the officer isn't allowed

"to use deadly force under these circumstances,

and therefore, he should be prosecuted."

I mean, that is just fundamental black letter law.

- The District Attorney's approach in this case

is somewhat unusual, but it's right.

It's completely unfair to give the officer

an unconstitutional advantage at trial.

That's what could happen in this case.

♪

- I want to win this case.

And it is important

because there is a way

in which a jury verdict

validates the prosecution.

"12 citizens of Philadelphia agree,

"beyond a reasonable doubt, this is a murder,

and we're not having it."

- So as we wait, for now, the trial's on hold.

If they do not rule in our favor,

we are going to go ahead and proceed to trial,

and we will do the best that we can

in an unfair contest.

But this family will know that we tried.

And Philadelphians will know that we tried.

[soft, emotional music]

♪

- I'm prayerful that

the Supreme Court will rule in our favor.

Out of our tragedy may come

some real change

to a system...

a system that just hasn't been right for a long time.

- I hate to say it.

My faith in the court system

is, like, the size of a mustard seed,

because they've been doing Black people wrong

for centuries.

This one little case is not gonna change that.

- From not having a father to having a father,

that relationship really built me into the man

I'm supposed to be.

There's a lot of days,

and there's still a lot of nights

I just think about it,

or I'll have a dream that he's still alive.

♪

- Is our name still here?

- I don't know what part of the tree you put it on.

- This is exactly where we had our first little picnic.

That was last year.

Yeah, I guess our little carving is gone.

Nothing lasts forever, that's for sure.

At the end of the day, we don't get DJ back.

So I have to raise my young, Black son,

and I have to deal with his emotions.

And we still have to live in this world.

- Even when justice will be served,

that person is still gone.

I honestly want my generation to be that generation

to really hold people accountable.

Hold our police accountable.

- We miss you so much, DJ.

I will celebrate your birthday

every year that I'm alive.

I always feel your presence.

And until we meet again,

Happy Birthday, DJ! - Happy birthday.

♪♪

announcer: Next time, on "Philly D.A."...

- People come together to say, "No more."

- The protests show we're not moving forward fast enough.

- My family's been destroyed by these systems,

and I don't feel good about this.

- Some people think you're not far left enough.

Others who think you're not far right enough.

[siren wailing]

- The police lock everybody up,

and Krasner lets them out.

- That's the system that we're working in right now.

- They hate your policies.

Address our concerns.

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♪♪