Lawyer: Video Proves Philly PD Lying About Shooting Unarmed Suspect

Rather Brandon Tate-Brown was running away from them when they opened fire, killing him. Attorney Brian Mildenberg said.

Dozens of people stood in the snow outside a Philadelphia police precinct today, accusing officers of a "cover up."

Tate-Brown, 26, was allegedly pulled over for driving with his headlights off. The Philadelphia police officers that pulled him over and put him handcuffs, though they never explained why he was in handcuffs over a driving violation. 

Additionally, television news crews that arrived on the scene minutes after the incident have documented that the lights of Tate-Brown’s 2014 Dodge Charger had its lights on. Officers would have been prohibited from tampering with evidence by turning the lights on after the incident.

Tate-Brown’s mother, Tanya Brown-Dickerson, has said she believes he was stopped for “driving while black.”

Midenberg said he was given the opportunity to review surveillance footage of Tate-Brown's encounter with two patrol cops during a traffic stop along in December. Brown-Dickerson also watched the footage recorded by four different cameras at nearby businesses. 

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey responded that the “quality” of the tape made it difficult to see what actually happened. Midenberg admitted it was imperfect with grainy images sometimes obstructed or washed out by the police cruiser's flashing lights. However, he said the video clearly shows the incident did not go down as police have claimed.

Activists protesting the shooting have called on police to make the video public.

Police have maintained that the officers and Tate-Brown got into a scuffle and that the suspect had knocked one of the officers to the ground. They said that he then reached into his car for a loaded handgun and was shot by the other officer. 

The officers did produce a stolen handgun but some critics have accused them of planting it asking why he would have left the gun in the car or how they even knew it was there before searching the car.

The video, the lawyer admits, reveals that there was a fight. However, it scenario ended up very differently than the police claimed, Mildenberg told The Daily News.

"From the video, the moment he was shot, he was running away from the officer, across Frankford Avenue," he said. "He was behind his vehicle, near the trunk of the vehicle — not near any doors — when he was shot and dropped down."

Mildenberg added that Tate-Brown was not following police instruction, "But police aren't licensed to shoot every person that runs from them."

The officers have already been cleared in the shooting and returned to work.