Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Soon-to-be-former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial is set to be both suspended and then fired from the department following the release of doorbell camera footage of the fatal and unnecessary shooting of Eddie Jose Irizarry just five seconds after pulling him over. According to NBC Philadelphia, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw announced the news during a public press conference Wednesday afternoon.
“Today, I am announcing that I have made the decision to utilize commissioner’s direct action to suspended Police Officer Mark Dial with the intent to dismiss him at the end of 30 days due to administrative violations,” Outlaw said. “More specifically, I chose to exercise direct action due to Officer Dial’s violations of PPD disciplinary code Article 4, insubordination, Section 4-002, refusal to promptly obey proper orders from a superior officer, and Article 1, conduct unbecoming, Section 1 – 008, failure to cooperate in any departmental investigation.”
In case that went over your head, Dial is not being fired for the shooting, he is being fired for not cooperating with the subsequent investigation of said shooting.
Dial gunned Irizarry down Aug. 14, after it was reported that the 27-year-old was “driving erratically.” Within seconds of making contact with Irizarry, Dial fired six fatal rounds. The Philadelphia Tribune reports that lawyer Shaka Johnson exposed the BS that police initially told about the circumstances surrounding the shooting. A spokesperson for the department told reporters that Irizarry was outside of his car and lunged at police with a knife. That was a lie. But don’t take our word for it, peep the video.
We will warn that it is graphic. Please take stock of your mental well-being before pressing play.
Here’s what Johnson said at the press conference where the video was released:
“When you look at this video, I want you to ask yourselves, look at it critically and ask yourselves, how, based on what you will soon see, could the narrative have ever been, this was a police chase? How could Ms. Reilly have ever taken to the podium as a spokesperson for the police department and said that Mr. Irizarry, Eddie, got out of that vehicle, wielded a knife, and I believe I heard Ms. Jasmine Reilly say, ‘officers gave commands to drop the knife whilst Eddie was outside of the vehicle. He did not do that. He in fact lunged at police officers and then was shot.’ We know that that is a patent lie. It is a fabrication. It did not happen that way at all,” Johnson said.
It’s a dirty game, y’all.
