Man fatally shot by Raleigh police officer had BB gun, bodycam video and report show.
Updated Feb. 5, 4 p.m.
Raleigh police chased a man for about 12 seconds last week, fatally shooting him while he held a BB gun and refused to stop or raise his hands, according to body-camera footage and the city’s five-day report on the incident.
Senior Officer W.B. Tapscott fired four shots, knocking Keith Dutree Collins to the sidewalk.
He quickly fired three more, than another four from cover on a nearby corner, after which the bleeding man said, “It ain’t nothing but a BB gun.”
The shooting happened just after 3 p.m. Thursday near Piney Grove AME Church, on the 3800 block of Pleasant Valley Road. The church is less than a mile east of Glenwood Avenue in the northern part of Raleigh.
A 911 caller said she saw a large black handgun fall from Collins’ shirt, and that he picked it up and looked at it before stuffing it in his pants.
The bodycam footage screened for the media Wednesday showed Tapscott stop his car and approach Collins as he walked on the sidewalk. Collins briefly raised his hands and began running down the street as the officer followed closely behind shouting, “Show me your hands!”
As he ran, Collins turned to face Tapscott several times, placing his hands near his waist or coat pocket, the video showed. After four viewings, reporters and spectators agreed the video did not clearly show whether Collins had the gun in his hand when he turned.
He remained on the ground near the church after the first four shots and appeared to wave his arms and legs, once yelling, “I’m listening.”
As Tapscott and a second officer approached him to place him in handcuffs, the second officer kicked what appeared to be a large handgun away from Collins’ body. Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown said in her five-day report that it proved to be a BB gun.
Colllins was taken to WakeMed Hospital, where he died.
On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Becky Holt said the Police Department cannot disseminate the video publicly, but she allowed it to be screened. About a dozen people, including a police representative and community activists, watched the first showing at 11 a.m.
During the screening, activist Kerwin Pittman rose from a table and said, “I can’t watch it.”
Pittman, who has been outspoken against police violence, later said: “It was hard to watch. Having viewed it, once the individual was on the ground, to continue to shoot when he’s on the ground seems a little excessive. It seemed like you eliminated the threat. It seemed like target practice.”
Rick Armstrong, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Protective Association, called the shooting “a very unfortunate circumstance,” noting that Collins did not show his hands and ran with what appeared to be a gun.
“Even after viewing that, I don’t know if it’s a BB gun or a real gun,” Armstrong said. “You have to treat it like a real gun. You don’t point BB guns at police officers. When a police officer is giving you a command, listen to the command.”
District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Collins’ family requested that the video not be distributed.
Freeman said she had seen the video and that the officers’ conduct on the scene is still under investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation, which is standard procedure.
Tapscott is on administrative duty pending the completion of the investigation.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 11:59 AM.