Bowing to public pressure, Omaha Police Department releases footage of Kenneth Jones killing

By Mel Buer

Photo by Jazari Kual

The Omaha Police Department released the bodycam footage of the fatal police shooting of Kenneth Jones Friday afternoon (April 23, 2021). This release comes after multiple calls by the public and requests from reporters, including NOISE and the Omaha World-Herald, to release the footage in the wake of last month’s grand jury decision. 

Last weekend, activists held a demonstration demanding that the footage be released to the general public. Prior to yesterday’s announcement, the footage and corresponding grand jury transcripts could only be viewed via appointment at the Douglas County District Clerk, and no copies of footage or other exhibits would be made. 

The Omaha Police Department maintained that they were unable to release the footage due to a Nebraska statute that prevented them from doing so. In an email to NOISE last month, Lt. Neal Bonacci conceded that the statute did not prevent the department from releasing the footage. “There is nothing in the statute prohibiting the Omaha Police Department from releasing the video,” he said in the email. “[O]ur department is abiding by the original intent of the statute regarding public review of exhibits and transcripts relating to grand jury proceedings.”

Shan’e Jones, sister of Kenneth Jones, spoke to the crowd during last week’s demonstration. She expressed frustration with the way that her brother’s case had been handled. “I heard there’s a process of how we have to, uh I guess, watch the footage, and I think that’s very ridiculous,” she said. “They said my brother was in the wrong, then they should show that. Clearly, they’re not trying to show that.” The family was not notified when the grand jury convened last month. They were made aware of the scheduled proceedings when a NOISE reporter reached out to them following the announcement.

The Omaha Police Department provided three videos to NOISE in an email - videos from the two officers’ body-worn cameras (BWC) and one video from the police cruiser dashcam. Almost immediately upon initiating the traffic stop, the two officers jumped out of their vehicle with guns raised. 

After Officer Faulkner shot Mr. Jones, it took them over a minute after he lay motionless on the ground before they rendered aid. As Officer Martier re-holstered his service weapon and stepped toward Mr. Jones, Faulkner can be heard saying, “He had a gun, dude!” Officer Martier replied, “I know. We’ve got to render aid.”

Officer Martier’s body-worn camera (BWC) appeared to have fallen off during the struggle with Mr. Jones as they attempted to pull him from the back of the vehicle, obscuring any view of the shooting itself. The shooting took place out of the view of the cruiser dash camera, meaning that only one angle - that of Officer Faulkner’s bodycam, caught the entire incident. The view from Faulkner’s BWC shows his arm, hand, and gun, with Kenneth Jones in the main view of the camera for the majority of the time.

New psychosocial research suggests that there is a correlation between the amount of time or frequency an officer is on screen and the likelihood that viewers will attribute intention to them. A paper published in 2019, shows the longer an officer is on screen or the more of their body that’s visible, the more likely a viewer is to believe they had some kind of intent behind their actions. Broderick Turner, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, spoke to NOISE last year shortly after the fatal police shooting and explained the way our brains interpret video footage can be heavily influenced by the viewpoint of the footage.

The footage released to the public does not make up the entirety of the video provided to the grand jury. “Please, understand the video provided is not the totality of the video shared during the grand jury proceeding,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. “The attached video includes the initiation of the traffic stop to the lifesaving measures on both officer’s Body Worn Camera and Mobile Video Recorder.” A NOISE reporter is scheduled to review the entire grand jury materials, including transcripts and exhibits, next week.