D.C. police released body camera footage Friday evening showing a police officer  shooting and seriously wounding 38-year-old Steven Shaw earlier this month. An officer shot Shaw on Feb. 10 while investigating an assault and mistaking Shaw for the suspect.

Police said last week that the officer, identified Friday as Alex Rosario-Berroa, fired a round at Shaw after he refused to exit a vehicle and reached into his waistband. The officer stopped Shaw because he believed him to be the suspect in an assault that had taken place nearby on Good Hope Road SE. In the hours after the shooting, police confirmed Shaw was not the suspect in that case. Shaw also was not armed when he was shot.

Shaw’s shooting prompted anger from the community, as police offered few details in their initial statements. Speaking shortly after the shooting took place, Police Chief Robert Contee described “a back and forth,” between the officer and Shaw, in which the officer asked Shaw to get out of the vehicle, but he admitted much remained unknown about what happened. Days later, Shaw’s mother – who was in the vehicle at the time of the shooting – said her son yelled “I didn’t do anything, I’m not the one,” according to the Washington Post. The footage confirms her account; Shaw repeatedly states he is not the person police are looking for.

The footage shows Rosario-Berroa approaching a vehicle, where Shaw is sitting in the passenger seat. His mother, Dorothy Hoes, was sitting in the driver’s seat. Police had been called moments earlier for an aggravated assault in the area, and Rosario-Berroa was searching for the individual matching the suspect’s description. It’s unclear what description the officer was using in his search. At the beginning of the interaction, Rosario-Berroa can be heard confirming whether the suspect had a “blue and yellow jacket on” into his radio, to which a dispatcher responds that the suspect is wearing a blue jacket. (Shaw was wearing a black jacket with blue and yellow sleeves.)

As Rosario-Berroa approached the car, Shaw said “It ain’t me.” Rosario-Berroa asked Shaw to step out repeatedly, as Shaw continued to say “It wasn’t me.” Rosario-Berroa said “If it’s not you, we’re gonna just find out.”

He told Shaw to “stop reaching” and show him his hands, and Shaw raised both arms in the air. Rosario-Berroa then grabbed Shaw by the shoulder and attempted to pull him out of the car with his gun out, repeatedly telling him “stop fucking reaching, you’re going to get shot.” He fired a single shot that struck Shaw in the abdomen. Police did not recover a weapon on Shaw.

Shaw’s mother was in the vehicle when he was shot, and told the Washington Post that “the bullet ripped his whole stomach apart.” While he was being taken care of by EMS on scene, officers discovered “a controlled substance,” in his pocket, according to the police report. Shaw was arrested for possession with intent to distribute, and has been in the hospital recovering from his injuries.

Video taken by a bystander on the scene showed Shaw handcuffed and sitting on the ground, receiving medical care from EMS personnel. An MPD officer holding a gun can be seen picking up something off the ground, but D.C. police have not confirmed if that was the officer who shot Shaw, and did not respond to DCist/WAMU’s question about what he was picking up.

Jay Brown, a community activist and organizer whose nephew, Jeffrey Price, died after being chased by D.C. police, says the footage only raises more questions about the interaction, and he described the officer’s actions as an “unprofessional escalation of violence.”

“What other description of the suspect did the officer utilize? How many times did the officer ask the individual to stop reaching when in fact he was not reaching? Where was the command to have the driver turn off her vehicle or secure the car to utilize better tactics?” he told DCist/WAMU.

He also questions why the officer first drew his gun rather than a taser. In the body-camera footage, as Shaw is lifting his arms up and the officer is telling him to step out of the car, a bystander can be heard telling the officer to pull out his taser.

“There were multiple people in close proximity of that shooting who were not given orders to move for safety reasons, and that officer firing that shot was reckless,” Brown said.

Brown told DCist/WAMU that he sent these questions to Contee on Friday evening after watching the footage, adding that “there are answers to what we we are dealing with, people have to be willing to listen, get involved, and not feel threatened by solutions.” By Sunday he said he had not received a response.

Police arrested 59-year-old Wallace Lewis in connection with the original assault call. He was charged with significant bodily injury and threats to do bodily harm, but the U.S. attorney for D.C. is not moving forward with charges, according to a spokesperson. Shaw’s case has been referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C., per standard protocol in cases of use-of-force. The USAO will conduct an investigation and determine whether to file charges against the officer.

It marks the first shooting by an officer this year. D.C. police shot five people in 2022, three of them fatally, according to MPD. One of those people was Kevin-Hargraves Shird. The 31-year-old D.C. resident was shot and killed by an officer in Brightwood Park last year. After a seven month investigation, the USAO determined it would not be filing charges against the officer – MPD Sergeant Reinaldo Otero-Camacho. The family of Hargraves-Shird has disputed the USAO’s investigation, and plans to file a civil suit against Otero-Camacho.