[bodycam would not have saved him] “If we were white, I truly believe he would not have approached my kids that way”: White Oakland Cop Pulls Gun on Black Firefighter and his kids

From [HERE] Video has surfaced of a tense situation between a white Oakland police officer and a black off-duty firefighter outside the fire station where he worked. Meanwhile, police said the officer was “within policy” during the incident.

The video, from the officer’s chest camera, is dark. But it shows what happened during an Oakland firefighter’s encounter with the officer. The video is dark, but the unnamed officer can be heard telling off-duty firefighter Keith Jones and his sons, aged nine and twelve, to stop and put their hands up. The officer sounds nervous. 

“I’m an Oakland firefighter. That’s my truck right there,” firefighter Keith Jones told the officer.

In an interview last week with KPIX 5, Jones said he and his 9-year-old and 12-year-old sons were passing by Station 29 when he noticed a door to the station was ajar. Before he could close it, Jones and his sons were approached by a police officer.

“I’m pretty much thinking he was going to shoot me,” Jones said last week.

Jones calmly explains that he is a firefighter, and that they entered after he noticed a door was left open. As they talk, one of his sons can be heard crying.

“I’m pretty much thinking, he’s gonna shoot me,” Jones told CBS.

The officer asks for identification, Jones gives it to him and the ordeal ends with the officer apologizing.

“If we were white, I truly believe he would not have approached my kids that way,” said Jones.

Jones filed a formal complaint with police internal affairs before the video was released.

However, Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent said in a statement, “The video footage allows the community to see the events as they occurred. The officers clearly acted within policy. We continue to be committed to transparency.”