Video shows fatal shooting of defendant who charged witness stand
Dramatic video footage of a U.S. marshal fatally shooting a defendant who charged a witness has been released by a court in Utah.
Siale Angilau was a 25-year-old member of the Tongan Crip gang in Salt Lake City during the 2014 racketeering trial that ended with his death.
Footage released on Monday as part of a public records request shows Angilau grabs a pen from his lawyer and sprints towards the witness stand.
(Siale Angilau via Utah Department of Corrections/Reuters)
He tumbles over the stand as the witness, a former gang member who was not identified in reports of the lawsuit where Angilau's family alleged excessive force by the officer.
United States District Judge John Dowdell dismissed the lawsuit and said that the officer, who has also remained unidentified, had reasonable belief that Angilau could have killed the witness or someone else.
The family said that the four shots fired were excessive, and that their loved one was only armed with a pen.
Dowdell also ordered the release of the 25-second video after the intervention of media outlets such as the Associated Press, despite objections from the Department of Justice.
With News Wire Services
