SAN ANTONIO – After nearly five months of waiting, the family of Darrell Zemault Sr. said bodycam footage of his death did not provide them with the answers they sought.
Now, the family is calling on the city to make the process more transparent as they continue to ask questions about what led San Antonio police to shoot Zemault outside his home on Sep. 15, 2020.
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Police have said officers showed up at Zemault’s home to arrest him on warrants when a physical struggle ensued. During the struggle, police said Zemault grabbed an officer’s gun, leading another officer to open fire on him, fatally striking Zemault in the back.
Zemault’s family said officials only allowed them to view two videos from two angles that were only roughly three minutes long.
“Our family was left with more questions than answers,” the family said in a statement on Sunday. “The San Antonio Police Department did not allow us to view footage from all five officers, nor did we see camera footage from the police vehicles.”
The family said they were told the footage was limited to those portions because “(officials) were only showing the ones which in their opinion ‘showed why the shooting occurred,’” according to the statement.
City officials did not provide a response to the statement as of Monday afternoon.
While the family never expected closure would come from viewing the shooting, they said the process only raised more questions.
“The limited, controlled footage that was presented left the family with many questions around the entire incident,” according to the statement. “The San Antonio Police Department continues to withhold vital information from our family and the public. We are disappointed by the lack of transparency from the City, our Mayor, and the Police Department.”
Police and city officials have so far refused to publicly release footage of the incident, citing the pending investigation. In December, police instituted a new policy that states the department will release partial footage of police shootings within 60 days of the incident, with some exceptions.
That does not apply to Zemault’s case, which happened before the policy was implemented.