Who is Mark Dial? Philadelphia cop to be fired after fatally shooting 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry during traffic stop
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: A Philadelphia police officer is slated to lose his job after he shot and killed 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry during a traffic stop last week, on August 14.
Officer Mark Dial, who has been placed on restricted leave, reportedly shot Irizarry through his car window in North Philadelphia, just five seconds after he got out of his patrol vehicle, newly released footage shows.
Speaking at a press conference, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw confirmed on Wednesday, August 23, that Dial would be suspended for 30 days, with the intent to terminate his employment for insubordination.
Outlaw stated that Dial refused to obey orders from a superior officer and failed to cooperate with the department's investigation.
She also noted that he could face additional disciplinary charges if it's discovered he violated additional policies.
“We have nothing to hide here. We make mistakes. We did say out there on the scene that this was preliminary information. Unfortunately, the information that was released has pretty dire consequences in establishing and framing a narrative that quite frankly was not true,” Outlaw saw at the conference, according to CNN.
Why did Mark Dial shoot Eddie Irizarry?
Police originally claimed that Dial shot Irizarry after he got out of his car with a knife and lunged at officers. It was also revealed that deputies pulled over the victim because he was driving "driving erratically."
However, authorities’ narrative was allegedly debunked by a home surveillance footage released by Shaka Johnson, the lawyer representing Irizarry's family.
Johnson said that he and the victim's family went back to the shooting's block to look for the footage on their own. Johnson said the narrative spun by the police was "an intentional misleading of the public."
In the surveillance footage, which was captured nearly directly across from the scene, Dial can be heard warning Irizarry, "I will f***ing shoot you," before firing through the driver's side window at close to point-blank range.
He is then seen firing again through the windshield as he runs backward and circled around the car. "Shots fired, shots fired," one of the officers said over police radio.
Irizarry, who was shot six times before he died, could be seen in the video writhing in pain. His body was removed from the driver's seat by the policemen, who then carried him to their police van, holding just one of his legs and one of his arms.
Irizarry was rushed to Temple University Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later, according to Daily Mail.
Did the police lie about Irizarry’s shooting death?
On Tuesday, August 22, Johnson told reporters that the initial police account that the man was outside the car and lunging at officers “didn’t really comport with what our eyes saw from the very beginning” in the surveillance video.
“What about what you just saw could ever be confused as ‘He got out of the car and lunged at police officers’? Not a single thing,” the attorney said at the conference.
He also noted that the City Solicitor’s Office invited Irizarry’s family to privately watch the body-worn camera footage last Friday but the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office had rescinded that offer.
Johnson noted that he will soon hand over the surveillance footage to all law enforcement agencies that are investigating Irizarry’s shooting death.
The attorney is currently preparing to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Mark Dial and the City of Philadelphia on behalf of the family. "In my view," Johnson said, "this is a crime against humanity, to be perfectly truthful."