Cop Body Cam was turned off before killing the innocent man, but the phone was caught

 A Columbus peace officer has been relieved of duty in the week after shooting an apparently innocent man who was holding nothing but a phone. Neither the victim nor the cop has been identified. However, protests are already within the works.

According to police, they received a call Tuesday evening, which they stated as a “non-emergency call,” a couple of men sitting in a car. in keeping with police, the caller said the person was turning the car on and off — which never warrants a call to the police and shouldn’t even warrant a response — as he could’ve simply been functioning on his car.

Police responded anyway. in step with police, the person in question was visiting a relative at the house and once they arrived, he walked toward them holding his phone. None of the responding officers had activated their body cameras.

According to police, as they walked toward the person, he walked toward them along with his cellphone in his hand. At now, one officer fired his weapon, striking his victim within the chest.

Only after the officer shot the person — who had not been accused of any crime — did the officers activate their body cameras. The body cameras employed by the cops have a continuous recording that buffers a 60-second clip with no sound, even when the cameras don't seem to be activated. Because the officer killed the person before long after arriving, the shooting was captured on video.

The look-back function, called “buffering,” maybe a common technology on body cameras and is supposed to handle this exact situation, Charles Katz, an Arizona State University criminal justice professor told CBS.

Although the cameras’ video is perpetually running, they only begin recording once they’re activated, saving whatever they’re set to, like 30 seconds or a moment, Katz said.

“In a technical sense it’s always recording but it’s not saved until it’s activated, so it only saves the prior 60 seconds,” Katz said.

In the body camera video, “the man walked toward the officer with a cellphone in his left,” police said. “His mitt wasn't visible.”

Because the buffer doesn’t record sound, we don't know what was said by any party before the officer opened fire. However, we do know that nobody rendered aid immediately after they killed this man.

Body camera footage from immediately after the shooting indicated “a delay within the rendering of first-aid to the person,” the general public safety department said during a news release.

“This could be a tragedy on many levels,” Columbus officer Thomas Quinlan said in an exceeding statement. “Most importantly, a life has been lost.”

Quinlan said in an exceedingly news conference that he immediately suspended the officer, forcing him to show in his badge and gun and suspended his police powers pending an interior review. He then went on to lambast the officers for failing to show on their cameras.

“The Division invested innumerable dollars in these cameras for the express purpose of making a video and audio record of those forms of encounters,” Quinlan said. “They provide transparency and accountability, and protect the general public, further as officers, when the facts are in question.”

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther echoed the chief’s sentiment, saying that it had been “unacceptable” for the officer to not have turned on their cameras.

“It is unacceptable to me and also the community that officers failed to activate their cameras,” Ginther said.

The City Council also issued a press release describing members as “beyond frustrated” at the news of cops killing more people.

“We are impatient for answers but implement an intensive, professional, and complete investigation that ensures justice is finished,” the statement said.

Police said they're not releasing the body camera footage or the victim’s name until the family has had an opportunity to look at it. When it's finally released, we are going to report it here.