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Body camera footage has been released of a Maryland police officer fatally shooting a 31-year-old Black man inside of his apartment.
According to Fox 5, the Independent Investigations Division (IID) of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General released video earlier this month of the deadly police shooting of Melvin Jay.
The video stems from Prince George County police responding to a report of a breaking and entering at an apartment on February 1. According to police, Officer Braxton Shelton responded to the scene at Windham Creek Apartments. The apartment's front door was allegedly unlocked when police arrived.
Video shows Shelton kicking the door open with his gun drawn. Shelton ordered Jay to show his hands before the man entered his kitchen and the officer opened fire. Jay died at the scene.
According to police, guns were recovered in Jay's pocket and kitchen sink.
Andrew Clark, the family's attorney, maintains that the shooting was unjustified. "For compliance to happen, and for you still to be shot, what kind of world are we living in here today? Melvin Jay did not deserve to die," Clark said.
"Well, I ask you, to sit in your home, on your cozy couch, and have somebody that you don’t know that is coming into your house, barge into your house, and start making commands to you, and see how you react to that," the attorney added.
Shelton is currently on paid administrative leave as the Maryland Office of the Attorney General IID continues to investigate the shooting.
"We are hurt. We are just tormented by the video, the fact that we cannot hear him, hug him, say ‘I love you,’ it’s just devastating to all of us,"Jay’s cousin told Fox 5. "We seek justice. We are going to allow this to unfold, allow the truth to come out, you know, and seek justice for my cousin. Because he deserves it. He did not deserve what happened to him."
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