Newly-released surveillance video shows the moments when a New Orleans police officer was caught in the open door of a moving car before being thrown into the street and under the front of a pickup truck earlier this month.
The officer ended up fatally shooting the driver.
The incident happened Friday, May 2, starting in the parking lot of the Walmart on Tchoupitoulas St.
According to NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, a passerby alerted an officer to a man apparently suffering from an overdose nearby in a running vehicle. Kirkpatrick says the officer responded and administered Narcan.
"When that subject awoke from the result of the Narcan being administered to him, he acted very erratically," the chief said.
The video shows the moments when the light green Hyundai sedan, near the upper right, begins to back out of the parking spot. It then pulls forward, hitting a woman who was pushing a shopping cart.
The man sped off in his vehicle, but the officer was still partway in his car as it left the parking lot and entered a nearby street. The car swiped a curb, nearly striking a bollard and throwing the officer from the open driver's door. She came to a stop under a pickup truck that had just stopped when its driver saw the car and police officer speeding towards them.
The chief said the officer, who believed her life was in danger, drew her weapon and fired.
"We do know she fired at least one shot and hit the perpetrator on the side of his chest," Kirkpatrick said.
The officer and the injured woman were brought to University Medical Center.
The incident remains under investigation.
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