Parents of Son Killed by Police Want Answers
A campus police officer who fatally shot a Catholic-college honor student following a traffic stop told the student to stop resisting arrest 56 times before shooting him five times, police said.
Cpl. Christopher Carter, who is on administrative leave after the shooting, is "very remorseful," police say, but he shot 23-year-old Robert Cameron Redus only after Redus took his police baton and hit him with it.
Carter was able to get his baton back, but Redus then charged him, prompting the University of the Incarnate Word officer to shoot six times, hitting Redus five. Redus was pronounced dead at the scene, Alamo Heights police Chief Richard Pruitt said Monday.
"The family of Redus is speaking out this morning to say that they are withholding judgment," CNN's George Howell reports. "They're still waiting for all the facts to come through in this case but that there is one simple fact, one truth, that they've never doubted, their son's character."
There is no dashboard video of the shooting available, but a microphone recorded sound from the altercation Friday.
It started with a traffic stop. Redus had been drinking, according to a witness, and drove past Carter, who was patrolling in a campus police pickup truck, Pruitt said.
The student sped into a construction zone in "bad weather conditions," he said. Carter followed him.
Redus struck a curb on the right, Carter reported, then swerved left into the opposite lane of traffic, so the officer switched on his emergency lights and pulled him over, Pruitt said.
Redus pulled into the apartment complex where he lived, and Carter followed, but he made a fateful slip.
He reported the wrong street location to police dispatchers, which caused his call to be routed to a police department farther away.
Alamo Heights police could have made it there to assist him sooner, but his call went to their San Antonio counterparts. This caused a delay of several minutes in response time.
He was left alone with Redus, and things went wrong. Had Pruitt's officers, who were closer, been called to respond, Redus might still be alive, the chief said.
"Regardless of what the investigation concludes, the tragedy for this family is that their son's life has been cut short," Howell says.
Montana Bride Jordan Linn Graham Goes On Trial In Husband's Fatal Fall From Cliff
The defense and prosecution agree on this much: Jordan Linn Graham pushed her husband of eight days, and he fell off a cliff to his death in Glacier National Park in Montana.
The question for jurors will be whether Graham's act was murder or a case of self-defense that ended tragically, CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
The two sides set out their opening arguments Monday about what took place as Graham's trial began in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.
Prosecutors said they would show that Graham, 21, was having serious second thoughts about her marriage before her husband's death and willfully lied to police after it.
But her defense lawyers said that the death plunge was an accident resulting from an argument. Graham initially lied to police, they said, because she was afraid she wouldn't be allowed to explain what happened on the cliff edge.Her husband, Cody Johnson, disappeared July 7. Four days later, the FBI says, Graham led friends and relatives to a popular spot in the park, where they found Johnson's body.
The defense and prosecution agree on this much: Jordan Linn Graham pushed her husband of eight days, and he fell off a cliff to his death in Glacier National Park in Montana.
The question for jurors will be whether Graham's act was murder or a case of self-defense that ended tragically.
The two sides set out their opening arguments Monday about what took place as Graham's trial began in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.
Prosecutors said they would show that Graham, 21, was having serious second thoughts about her marriage before her husband's death and willfully lied to police after it.
But her defense lawyers said that the death plunge was an accident resulting from an argument. Graham initially lied to police, they said, because she was afraid she wouldn't be allowed to explain what happened on the cliff edge.
Her husband, Cody Johnson, disappeared July 7. Four days later, the FBI says, Graham led friends and relatives to a popular spot in the park, where they found Johnson's body.
See HLN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson and Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin weigh in on the trial on "New Day" Tuesday:
Jury Selection Starts for Woman Accused of Pushing Husband Off Cliff
The defense and prosecution agree on this much: Jordan Linn Graham pushed her husband of eight days, and he fell off a cliff to his death in Glacier National Park in Montana.
The question for jurors will be whether Graham's act was murder or an accident caused by self-defense.
Graham's trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana,
Cody Johnson, 25, disappeared July 7. Four days later, the FBI says, Graham led friends and relatives to a popular spot in the park, where they found Johnson's body.
The 21-year-old new bride at first maintained she had simply speculated Johnson might have gone there. But an FBI agent said that she changed her story when she was shown a surveillance photo of the couple entering the park together.
HLN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson and Legal Analyst Sunny Hostin weighed in on the trial on "New Day" Monday. Hostin said the facts of the case are in the prosecution's favor.
"Bottom line is eight days after you're marriage, you have surveillance photos of both of them walking into the park, he ends up dead at the bottom of a cliff and she tells no one. That's really all I need."
What exactly Graham said next to the FBI will be fiercely contested at the trial.
At a pre-trial hearing November 15, Graham testified, "We went on a little stump part and we were in the middle of an argument and he thought I was going to run away. Cody had grabbed me and I thought he was going to push me down. My first instinct was to get him off."
In a court fiilng, the defense said Graham pushed Johnson away as she removed his hand from her arm, and her husband tumbled over the cliff.
But the criminal complaint against her says that in an FBI interview, "Graham stated she could have just walked away, but due to her anger, she pushed Johnson with both hands in the back and as a result, he fell face first off the cliff."
Her attorney, federal public defender Michael Donahoe, said the FBI did not record the first hour and 20 minutes of Graham's interrogation. He accused an FBI agent of then making "an epic effort" to get Graham to use "key words" in a recorded session that would support a criminal conviction.
A defense motion says that in two subsequent recorded FBI interviews, Graham said she acted in self-defense and that her husband's fall was an accident.
Graham, who had been a part-time nanny, is accused of murder and making false statements.
The case is being prosecuted in federal court before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy because the incident occurred in a national park.
Catholic College Police Officer Kills Student After Off-Campus Traffic Stop
The campus police officer who shot Robert Cameron Redus said the 23-year-old student got out of his truck after a traffic stop, approached the officer and got into the struggle which claimed Redus' life.
Redus' friends at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, say that's not the person they knew.
They knew a student who made the dean's list at the Catholic college and had been co-valedictorian of a Christian high school back home in Baytown, Texas. They knew a fun-loving campus television news anchor who was "the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person," as friend Annie Jones described him to CNN affiliate WOAI-TV.
Sarah Davis even attended a news conference at the Alamo Heights police station looking for information.
"The story just really doesn't make sense to any of us," she told CNN affiliate WOAI. " And I think we're mostly just angry and want answers."
The shooting took place Friday in an off-campus parking lot in the town of Alamo Heights, which neighbors San Antonio.
Redus was speeding and driving erratically, said Alamo Heights police Lt. Cindy Pruitt.
Incarnate Word campus police officers are permitted to use police powers off-campus, she said.
When the officer pursued Redus in his marked cruiser, the student pulled into an apartment complex.
A resident of the complex, 22-year-old Mohammad Haidarasl, told the San Antonio Express-News that Redus was his upstairs neighbor.
It was 2 a.m., and Haidarasl was on his apartment sofa.
He told the paper he heard a voice he believes to have been the officer's saying, "Stop resisting, stop resisting."
The newspaper quoted Haidrasl as saying he thought he heard a struggle and "then the cop said, 'I'm going to shoot.'"
A male voice replied, "'Oh, you're gonna shoot me?' like sarcastic almost," Haidarasl said.
Less than a minute later, he said, he heard shots.
Alamo Heights police acknowledged the officer fired several shots. But they would not discuss other details of the alleged struggle, citing the ongoing investigation.
CNN is not naming the officer because he has not been charged.
Redus' family released a statement to CNN affiliate KENS-TV saying, "We are understandably devastated by the death of our dear son Cameron and we ask for your prayers as we deal with our tragic loss. We trust that God is faithful and will see us through this most difficult time."
University President Lou Agnese said in a statement released to WOAI, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the student and officer involved in this incident."
Hundreds of people, including relatives of Redus, gathered at the university's convocation center Saturday for a vigil. Students brought a slideshow of Redus in happy poses.
"It makes me feel better that we've got a lot of support for Cameron," classmate Albert Salinas said outside the event in an interview withCNN affiliate KSAT-TV.
But they left with no better idea of what happened to their friend.
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