Family of 23-year-old Rob Adams, shot and killed by San Bernardino police, call for accountability

original article published at https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/family-of-23-year-old-rob-adams-shot-and-killed-by-san-bernardino-police-call-for-accountability/

Activists gathered at San Bernardino City Hall Saturday to call for accountability after police shot and killed 23-year-old Rob Adams during an incident that was captured on camera. 

While police said their use of deadly force was justified, the victim’s family was calling for a state and federal investigation of the San Bernardino Police Department. 

“They didn’t have to kill my brother,” the 23-year-old victim’s sister said. “I hope they give us justice.” 

RELATED: Family disputes officers’ version of events leading up to fatal shooting of 23-year-old Black man Rob Adams

Earlier this week, SBPD released a video with enhanced images, accompanied by commentary from Chief Darren Goodman, who said officers spotted two males, one of whom was clearly displaying a gun in his waistband. 

Police also said that when they approached, Adams had the gun in his hands and refused orders to drop it, as he ran between parked cars. 

“They believed he intended to use the vehicle as cover to shoot at them,” Chief Goodman said in the video’s commentary. “One of the officers fired his gun, striking Adams.” 

Despite efforts by police and first responders to save the 23-year-old, he died. 

“In fact, we’re calling it an execution,” activist Najee Ali said outside San Bernardino City Hall. “Any time you’re on videotape running away from police and shot in the back, that’s an execution and that’s why we say it was unjustified shooting.” 

Police said that Adams’s gun was recovered at the scene, with a bullet still in the chamber and ten more in the magazine, but his family said he’d been holding his cellphone. 

“Yes, he was running from the police, but stop asking the wrong questions,” Ali Why did the police shoot a man in the back?”

San Bernardino police said that are already conducting an internal investigation. The district attorney is also investigating the shooting. 

Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family, told CBLSA the family does not trust the very people who killed their son to investigate themselves.