Source: Instagram / Instagram
After the video of the senseless murder of George Floyd hit the web and viral sparking protests broke out in Minneapolis, the second video of a young man speaking passionately to a news reporter began to circulate with many attributing the clip to Minnesota—but the clip is actually four years older.
The viral video that has been posted on various celebrities pages including Diddy and Shaun King is actually footage from an interview given by Sedan Smith in 2016 after his older brother Sylville Smith was murdered by Milwaukee police.
According to published reports around the incident, Smith’s passionate speech was given after the city of Milwaukee underwent riots for two days behind the lack of response and arrest of Black police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown who they claim murdered Sylville Smith in cold blood while he was no threat and on the ground.
Smith was initially pulled over under the pretense of suspicious behavior when he and his friend were pulled over. Smith, who did have an extensive criminal record, and his friend fled the vehicle before Smith was cornered in an alleyway. It was there that details of the shooting became unclear. According to Milwaukee police at the time, Smith, who was armed, turned towards officers to surrender before being shot. After falling to the ground it was reported that Smith received a second fatal shot.
During the trial, body-camera footage from another officer was released, showing that Heaggan-Brown shot Smith twice, with the second bullet being fired into his chest after Smith hurled his weapon over a fence and had his hands near his head. Smith was on the ground when he received the fatal shot.
Dominique Heaggan-Brown was cleared in the death of Sylville Smith but was convicted in a separate case of felony sex crimes and sentenced to three years in prison before his release earlier this year.
Since the initial recording of the heart-wrenching video, not much has changed and that’s why that video resonates today because Black and Brown people all over America are tired of trying to fix a system that was designed to tear us down.
Check out the full interview below.
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