EAST LANSING — East Lansing Police have released some of the video evidence from April 25, when two officers shot and injured a 20-year-old Black man in the Meijer parking lot.
Officers were at the Lake Lansing Meijer to investigate a 911 caller’s report of a Black man with a gun. The man, DeAnthony VanAtten, fled when he saw officers in the store.
Police did not release any footage from inside the store, aside from blurry video of officers chasing VanAtten.
Four officers totally chased VanAtten through the store and parking lot. Two ultimately fired their weapons and have subsequently been placed on leave while the investigation is pending. VanAtten had two gunshot wounds. It’s not yet known whose bullets struck him.
Community, police react: East Lansing police release video of officers shooting man in Meijer parking lot
East Lansing released six videos from the shooting: four officers body camera footage and two surveillance videos from the Meijer parking lot.
Here’s the rundown on what takes place in each.
Warning: These videos contain graphic content and language.
VanAtten arrives at Meijer, runs into store
This short video shows VanAtten pulling into the Meijer parking lot.
He gets out of the driver’s seat of a silver Chevy Equinox and runs into the store. Six seconds later, he runs back to the car and opens the driver’s side door. He grabs something from the car and runs back in.
Officer fires two shots at fleeing man
In this video, an officer pulls up outside the Meijer and jumps out of his patrol vehicle.
Hey yells: “Get on the ground.”
The officer chases VanAtten through the parking lot and his yellow stun gun is visible in his hand as he runs.
He yells at VanAtten again, using expletives and demanding he get on the ground. He tells VanAtten he’s going to get “tased” if he doesn’t get on the ground.
“He’s reaching, he’s reaching, he’s got a gun,” the officer yells. He darts behind a pickup and fires two shots at the man, who is now a full row of cars away. He says “shots fired, shots fired” into his radio.
His gun still pointed over the bed of the pickup, he again tells VanAtten to “get on the (expletive) ground.”
Another officer fires off six shots.
The officer approaches VanAtten, who is now more than a full row of cars away, lying on the ground. His gun is still drawn.
A woman behind him, who arrived in the same car as VanAtten did, is hysterical. When the officer asks, she says she doesn’t know who he is.
Officer sees VanAtten running from store, fires 6 shoots
The video starts with the officer in his car, listening to dispatchers talk about the vehicle police are trying to find in the Meijer parking lot.
He talks to the woman who made the original 911 call and asks her what row the SUV is in. He updates dispatchers on where the SUV is and gets out of his patrol car.
Over the scanner, an officer is saying VanAtten is running toward the pharmacy side. The officer is just entering the Meijer and he tells several people near the door to back up.
He yells at VanAtten as he runs out of the grocery store, holding something in a white, plastic bag: “Hey, let me see your (expletive) hands, let me see your (expletive) hands.”
“Drop it,” the officer yells as he starts to chase VanAtten through the parking lot. Hey yells something unintelligible.
He describes VanAtten into his radio and says he’s going west in the parking lot.
“He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun,” someone says. It’s unclear which officer says it.
As two shots ring out from another officer, he ducks behind a black SUV, his own gun out.
VanAtten runs out of the row of cars, his back to the officer, and he shoots six times at him. VanAtten falls to the ground, yelling and moaning.
“Let me see your (expletive) hands. Hands,” hey yells.
He and another officer stand back from VanAtten as the other officer orders VanAtten to put his hands behind his back.
“You just shot me, stop (expletive) touching my wound,” Van Atten says, moaning.
A second officer pats VanAten down for a gun, then he and the second officer start looking for his wounds and treating them. VanAtten is shot in the abdomen and the leg.
“I can’t breathe,” Van Atten yells. “I can’t believe you shot me, bro.”
The two officers do first aid on VanAtten. They tell him to “stay with me” and ask him his name. The second officer puts a tourniquet on his leg.
“You gotta tell me where else you’re shot,” the officer says. Van Atten says he doesn’t know.
Two officers in the video talk about finding the gun. They say they do not know where it is.
Officer pats VanAtten down, does first aid after shooting
After arriving at the Meijer, this officer wanders through the parking lot trying to find the Chevy Equinox reported by the 911 caller.
He and a second officer go inside the Meijer, then he starts running after hearing something on his radio. He runs toward the “home” exit, leaves the store and goes back to the parking lot.
He is still close to the doors when the officers shoot VanAtten. He slows, then heads over to where VanAtten is lying on the ground of the parking lot.
The officer makes VanAtten roll over and puts his hands behind his back. He handcuffs VanAtten and pats him down and rolls him around to search his body.
He and another officer start doing basic first aid and put a tourniquet on VanAtten’s leg above where he was shot.
Officer searches parking lot for gun
At the start of this video, this officer is also searching the parking lot for the SUV VanAtten arrived in.
He goes into Meijer with the other officer and says “he’s gonna be running toward the pharmacy side.” He starts running and gives a physical description of the man.
“He’s got a gun, stay back, stay back,” he tells some customers as he runs out of the store.
He runs to his car and drives around the parking lot, pulling up right in front of VanAtten and the officers huddled around him.
The officer asks about the gun that the first officer said VanAtten had in his hand. The first officer tells him VanAtten had it in his hand when he went in between the cars.
He uses his flashlight to peer under a bunch of cars, but does not find the gun. He turns to the woman who arrived in the same vehicle as VanAtten.
“She’s gotta have the gun,” he says. He grabs her arm and pushes her over to her car. She’s holding a baby carrier. He tells another officer to “check her for a gun” and she screams at him as he tells her to relax.
“You are not free to leave,” he tells her.
The woman says the officers “shot him for no reason” and the officer tells her, “that’s not what the officer saw.”
He goes back over to the officers surrounding VanAtten and asks the first officer, the one who saw the gun, if he was able to stash it in a car.
“I couldn’t see man, I just saw him with it,” the officer says.
The officer ultimately finds a gun under a gray Volkswagen, two vehicles over from VanAtten’s SUV.
Another officer pulls a pistol out from under the car and extracts the magazines. He says there’s another bullet “loose” inside the chamber.
Security footage shows VanAtten leaving the store
Meijer’s security footage shows VanAtten running through the parking lot, coming from the “home” side of Meijer. The video is shot from the roof and is zoomed in to see what happens more clearly.
VanAtten darts through three rows of cars before he curves, heading back to the SUV he arrived in. He appears to have something in his hand.
One officer is just behind him, then as VanAtten turns back toward the row of cars where his SUV is parked, the officer ducks behind a black pickup.
VanAtten bends down between two cars and disappears from view. He is next to the car where police ultimately found a gun.
When he stands back up, the officer pulls out his gun and fires. Separate body camera footage shows he fires twice at VanAtten.
The man falls down, gets back up again and keeps running from the officer. He takes about a dozen steps before he falls in the aisle of the parking lot and rolls onto his back.
The officer walks over, still holding his gun out. A second officer comes into frame from the opposite side of the lot. This second officer also shot at VanAtten. He fired six times, according to his body camera footage.
Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.
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