The High Point Enterprise
ASHEBORO — A Randolph County Superior Court judge will view the videotapes surrounding the recent fatal police shooting on Interstate 85 of a UNC Chapel Hill student.
Bradford Long, a senior resident Superior Court judge, requested Friday that copies of the dashboard camera videotapes from two Archdale police patrol cars be turned over to him so he can determine if the contents will be released to the public. The request to view the tapes came after Long heard a motion filed by several media outlets, including The High Point Enterprise, to allow the release of the tapes that may have caught an Archdale police officer opening fire on Smith. Long said he may have a decision by the end of next week.
“I think a court has to proceed this way,” Hugh Stevens, an attorney representing The High Point Enterprise, said of Long’s decision to view the tapes. “When you have sealed a record of document of this sort, the only way the court can meaningfully decide its status, it seems to me, is to look at it, and make a decision.”
Randolph County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Gregson urged Stevens not to release the videotapes, claiming it would taint a potential jury pool and could alter witnesses’ statements. Gregson also argued the videotapes are not public record because dashboard camera tapes are not defined in the general statutes of North Carolina.
Smith, a 21-year-old junior and a UNC fraternity president from Houston, Texas, was shot by Officer Jeremy Paul Flinchum during a traffic stop on Interstate 85 just before 5 a.m. Aug. 23, according to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. The shooting occurred after officers conducted a traffic stop “regarding a subject who called for police assistance and indicated that he was suicidal,” according to an Archdale police news release.
Long previously had sealed two audio recordings surrounding the shooting, but both have since been released.
Guilford Metro 911, which Smith called for assistance, released an audio recording that indicated Smith was driving drunk, suicidal and armed with a 9 mm pistol. The recording ends with an officer yelling for Smith to stay in his car before Smith tells police he had to “pull something out.”
Police previously had said that “once the vehicle came to a stop, a confrontation ensued,” and then Flinchum shot smith.
An Archdale police radio traffic audio recording indicates officers attempted to tell Smith to get back into his vehicle moments before police opened fire.
It remains unclear by both recordings if Smith displayed a weapon to officers or was shot by police in his vehicle.
