A shocking livestream video has captured the moment leading up to a fatal shooting of an African-American man by police in the US state of Tennessee.
Rodney James Hess, a 36-year-old New Orleans native, was shot by at least one Crockett County sheriff's deputy at around 2:15 p.m. on Thursday.
Hess, who his relatives said had a mental illness, was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The black man posted two livestream videos of himself on Facebook on Thursday.
The first video shows Hess driving his white SUV for almost 20 minutes. The man is heard talking to himself and periodically stopping the vehicle on a highway in Crockett County, blocking traffic.
The video ends as the first deputy arrives and parks near Hess' car.
The second stream, which lasts about 4 minutes, shows Hess as he demands to speak to the “higher commands.”
The situation escalates as the SUV, parked perpendicular to traffic, drives forward off the road. The phone capturing the moment live drops to the floor of the car as several shots are fired into the vehicle.
Hess screams in pain and the phone moves on to show scattered shards of window glass on the seats.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation did not say whether investigators found any firearms in Hess' car.
"A Crockett County deputy arrived after drivers were obviously not able to get where they wanted to go," said Josh DeVine, an agency spokesman.
"He then determined that he needed backup. Preliminary information indicates Hess attempted to use his vehicle, his SUV, to strike the officers at least twice,” he added.
The videos captured by Hess, however, do not appear to show him attempting to hit the officers.
"He was not trying to harm anybody. He was asking them for help and they shot him down," said Johnisha Provost, a relative of the victim. "He was on Facebook, and I logged on and I watched it.”
Provost said Hess suffered from bipolar disorder and that she could tell from the videos that he was disoriented.
"He couldn't get his mind together. That's why he asked for a higher command," she said. "I always told him, 'Babe, if you are ever in a situation where you need help, ask the person in charge for the higher command to help you,' and that's what he kept saying."
US police officers fatally shot nearly 1,000 people last year, amounting to three deaths each day, according to an investigation by the Washington Post. A disproportionate number of those killed in 2016 were black, and about a quarter involved a victim who had a mental illness.
Posts
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to omodjk(at)gmail(dot)com
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.