Officer Andrew Citriniti and Officer Patrick Husney were also in pursuit of Mway. While Officer Patterson was still on top of the subdued child, Officer Husney shoots Mway in the chest. The boy starts bleeding out on the sidewalk. One witness who recorded the shooting on her phone can be heard warning the police, “Careful, you’re on camera.”
When the shot rings out, the shocked and horrified woman yells, “Oh my God! He just shot him!” The police attempted, but ultimately failed, to take her phone after the shooting. The video soon became viral on social media.
Eyewitness accounts and statements from Officer Patterson suggest that Mway was not a threat to the officers while he was on the ground. The body cam of the visibly shaken and stunned Patterson captures him telling other officers, “Ultimately the gun came out right next to him.” Still concerned whether or not he was shot, he stated, “I was on top of [Mway]. I don’t know how [Husney] got that shot. I was on top of him.”
So even the officer who was on top of the kid was stunned that one of his colleagues just shot the kid anyway. American policing: even if they can catch you and subdue you without causing harm, they’ll choose to execute you on the spot anyway, even if you’re a child.
And then they tried to cover it up.
(Also it’s a little confusing that there are two people called Patterson in this article, one a police officer and the other a critic of the police.)