Given recent events, every instance of police shooting civilians – especially, black civilians – is going to come under scrutiny. Questions are sure to arise of whether or not deadly force was necessary and if victims may have been profiled in the first place. While it’s too early for definitive answers, those same questions are now being aimed at Houston police.

Two Houston police officers, both with ten or more years experience, saw a man standing in the street with a revolver in his hand. The man, later identified as Alva Braziel, was reportedly asked to lower his weapon by both officers and a witness. Instead, according to CBS, he raised it towards the sky, lowered it in the officers direction and they both fired multiple shots. 

While the department ensures the public that the officers acted justly and for their own safety, as well as the public’s, some feel differently.

“It’s like we got a target on our back even if we’re innocent, it hurts,” Eric Puckett, a bystander, told CBS. “You don’t even want to walk outside your house any more. But to all the young black men and young black women out there, all black people, do something positive.”

However, Houston PD stated that a nearby gas station’s surveillance captured the incident and that the officers were each wearing body cameras. More details are expected to be revealed at a later time.

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