Source: YouTube screenshot
Another police shooting. Another innocent Black person dead. Another instance of a police department investigating one of their own in the wrongful death of someone who called them for help.
Brandon Durham, a 43-year-old homeowner in Las Vegas, Nevada, called police on Nov. 11 to report he had heard gunshots outside of his home and someone had broken in. He gave the description of the intruder, including the fact that they were wearing a red hoodie.
Three officers arrived on the scene, kicked in Durham’s front door, and announced themselves. Body camera footage shows the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) officers moving through the home as screaming and shouting can be heard from elsewhere in the background.
The officers come across Durham, who is in only his underwear, struggling over a knife with a person later identified as 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux in the doorway of one of the home’s bedrooms.
An officer can be heard shouting “Drop the knife,” and two seconds later, an LVMPD officer identified as Alexander Bookman shot Durham in the head, causing both Durham and Boudreaux to fall to the ground. He then shot Durham five more times as he lay on the ground not moving.
According to police records obtained by local station KLAS, Officer Bookman had been to Durham’s house the previous night when another call had been placed by Durham to complain that Boudreaux would not leave his home.
KLAS reports that Durham was not home at the time he made that call around 11:30 p.m., but he arrived there at 12:11 a.m. A note from Officer Bookman on that night indicates that Boudreaux packed up and left around 12:40 a.m. and headed to the airport.
During their press conference, police made no mention of the previous visit to Durham’s home, nor did they indicate that Bookman, the officer who killed Durham, had any prior interaction with both Durham and Boudreaux.
Because Boudreaux left that first time, no police report was made of the incident.
And even with a full description of the suspect when Durham called that second night, Bookman still killed the wrong person.
In case it’s not clear from the video, Boudreaux is literally dressed like someone who was intent on breaking into someone’s home.
Durham was in only his boxer shorts, struggling with Boudreaux for the knife she had grabbed from his kitchen (according to police reports) and yelling for help.
According to 8 News Now, the call placed on the night before the shooting is mentioned in the report after police killed Durham 24 hours later:
“Durham was at a hotel with another female while Boudreaux was at his house,” police said about the initial disturbance call in Boudreaux’s arrest report. “Durham called police… and Boudreaux agreed to leave the house. Boudreaux left the house and used Uber to go to the airport where she stayed until her flight.”
“While on the way back to Durham’s house, Boudreaux decided that she was going to die,” documents said. “She explained she had been suicidal for a few days and wanted to be shot by the police. Boudreaux stated, ‘I wanted the cops to shoot me dead. And I wanted him to live the wreckage that I caused in his house.’”
Reports say Boudreaux told police they shot the wrong person.
Bookman has been placed on paid administrative leave while LVMPD investigates the shooting. Once their investigation is done, the Clark County District Attorney will decide whether or not charges will be filed against Officer Bookman.
An attorney representing Officer Bookman told reporters his client had committed no crime, according to CNN.
A message seeking comment from Lee Merritt, the civil rights attorney representing Durham’s family, was not immediately returned.
Shooting someone in the head, watching them fall to the ground, and then shooting them five more times when they never posed a threat to you seems like a crime to me, but what do I know? I’m just a journalist who has repeatedly had to write these types of stories.
And for those of you keeping score at home, shooting someone in the head, watching their body fall to the ground, and then shooting them five more times is not only overkill, but it’s the type of police behavior the incoming president wants to grant immunity to.
Police officers all around the country are celebrating his return to office because he has promised to always “back the blue.”
Brandon Durham’s family wants justice, but how can we be assured they will receive it? Both the district attorney in Clark County and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department have indicated that the investigation into the shooting death of Brandon Durham could take “months,” which means we may be well into a Trump presidency before any findings are reported back.
What does that mean for the Durham family? What does that mean for his teenage daughter, who was also in the home at the time police shot and killed her father?
What does it say about this country that we can repeatedly have police killing Black people extrajudicially and nothing ever happens to them?
Firing a warning shot is one thing. Shooting a person in the head merely two seconds after you uttered a command – a command they never even had a chance to try to comply with (remember, two people were struggling over one knife) is over the top.
Shooting a man who has called twice and complained about the same unwanted person in his home is egregious.
Shooting him and then repeatedly firing into his body after he hits the ground and is no longer a threat is murder in my opinion.
I hope the Durham family gets the justice they deserve.
I’m not confident it will happen, though.
Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at moniquejudge.com.
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