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Euclid police release body camera video following fatal shooting of 23-year-old unarmed man

Posted at 7:51 AM, Mar 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-23 13:51:11-04

The camera clicks on and a Euclid police officer is hovering over 23-year-old Luke Stewart giving him CPR. It's the first glimpse we have seen of the fatal March 13 incident, where an officer shot Stewart dead.

It all happened shortly after two officers responded to a report of a suspicious car parked on South Lakeshore, near East 215th street. Another camera, on the dashboard of a Euclid patrol car, shows more officers arriving at the scene.

But these are the only images available that give us an idea of what happened that morning.

Originally Euclid police told News 5 both officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cams but did not activate them. 

On Thursday Lt. Mitch Houser clarified, saying the officers were actually not wearing body cameras.

Euclid police policy states that body cameras are optional. Officers must purchase them out of pocket and hit record based on their own discretion.  

The Bureau of Criminal Investigations have not identified the officers involved but in the video, you can hear a supervising officer asking an officer about the incident, in which he states that he wasn't the one who fired the shots. Also, he says the officer who fired the shot was uninjured.

You then see ambulance leave for the hospital, where Stewart is later pronounced dead. In the video, the supervising officer says he believes Stewart was shot twice. "In the neck and chest possibly," the officer says.

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