‘Drop the gun, it’s not worth it.’ Video shows Sacramento police shooting near Sac State

Sacramento police released body camera footage Monday of officers fatally shooting a 22-year-old man last week at an apartment complex near Sacramento State University.

The video shows a tense confrontation between police and Jeremy Southern on July 21. Southern is seen pointing a gun at officers for 90 seconds. Officers gave 28 commands for him to drop the gun before firing at Southern twice.

The video release — mandated by the City Council’s policy on police use of force — includes video from three police body cameras, one cellphone from a witness and 11 audio files of police and 911 communications. Police are still investigating the incident and will release additional videos, the department said in a news release.

The videos released Monday show officers following on foot as Southern and a female companion walk in The Crossings apartment complex in the 2900 block of Ramona Avenue, which houses more than 700 students. Sacramento police said the two officers were at the complex to collect surveillance footage from a shooting that occurred there on July 15.

While there, the officers recognized the suspect from the shooting walking through the complex, the department said. Police said Southern was the suspect in the shooting.

Officers quickly approach Southern from behind as he walks into a courtyard and pull their weapons. They identify Southern by name and give commands for him to put his hands up.

Southern is seen raising a handgun in his left hand and the woman accompanying him steps between him and police.

“Put your hands up, Jeremy,” one officer yells. “Drop the gun ... Jeremy, drop the gun.”

Officers take cover behind an exterior wall of the apartment complex an estimated 90 feet away while repeatedly giving commands. Cellphone video of the incident filmed by a resident shows Southern gripping a handgun with both hands and pointing in the direction of the police officers. The woman with him moves off to the left. Southern continues to point the gun as he pulls out his cellphone and holds it to his face. He approaches the door of the apartment building and then moves back to the courtyard.

“Jeremy, drop the gun, it’s not worth it,” an officer says. “Jeremy, drop the gun, we don’t want to shoot you.”

One of the officers can be heard saying he sees people in a lobby of the apartment building behind Southern.

An officer armed with a rifle arrives at the scene and chambers a round as he sprints to the officers giving commands to Southern. The officer then takes position and announces, “I’m going to take a shot.”

The cellphone video shows Southern being hit in the abdomen and falling to the ground. The gun falls a few feet in front of him to his right.

The woman who had been walking with Southern lays down on the ground after officers command her to get down. She continues to cry and scream and Southern rolls over on his right side. As Southern begins to roll over and appears to move back toward the gun, the woman screams for him to stay down.

The officer armed with the rifle can be heard saying, ““if he crawls forward, I’m taking a shot again.”

About 7 seconds later, the officer fires a second shot. Southern does not appear to move again.

A few minutes after the second shot, eight officers move toward him, two of them carrying shields. As they begin giving medical aid, two officers handcuff the woman as she lies on the ground.

“Please make sure he lives ... he’s a good man,” she says. The officer responds, “We’re going to do our best.”

Southern was transported by the Sacramento Fire Department to a local area hospital, where he later died of his wounds, the Sacramento Police Department said.

“What do you do?” said Berry Accius, a community activist and founder of Voice of the Youth, a Sacramento mentorship program. “We asked for transparency. They might have got this one right, but you don’t want to see anyone die that way. I still wish and hope that we could’ve figured out a different way. It’s a tough one for us as a community to swallow.”

Sonia Lewis, a founder of the Liberation Collective for Black Sacramento, said she thought police should have made a better effort to deescalate the situation and help Southern.

“I would say the same thing that I said that night, even though he had a gun in hand pointing in the direction of supposedly officers, which I can’t confirm or deny, my thought would be he didn’t shoot,” Lewis said. “He looked like a young man reaching out for help. ... If he wanted to shoot somebody, he had a lot of time and opportunity to do so, and he didn’t.

“If we are going to be a city that requires our police to preserve life, the second shot is unjustified. They shouldn’t have made the second shot.”

Court records indicate Southern had a troubled past. According to the Megan’s Law website, he had recently been released from state prison after pleading no contest to a 2016 felony charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age, according to court records. Southern was registered as an offender under Megan’s Law, and was listed as “in violation” and considered at “above average risk” of sexual offense.

In 2014, when Southern was 17, he posted a video to his Facebook account in which he shuffled note cards in front of the camera saying he was in foster care.

“It sucks to know your mom doesn’t love u,” Southern wrote on note cards. “But what suck (sic) more is to be adopted for 16 yrs just to find out the person who adopted u did it for the money ... I loved her and that family.”

He continues that he had finally found his brother and that “theirs (sic) a light at the end of tunnel” because he believed he had found a family who loved him.

“So everyone who has it hard just know your not alone and if you need someone to talk to I’m here,” he wrote.

The video was viewed more than 58,000 times.

This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 2:07 PM.