A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a Los Angeles suburb to release video of police shooting an unarmed suspect in 2013, ending a two-year legal battle over whether the public has a right to see the video.
The video above, captured by police car cameras in Gardena, Calif., depicts three men surrendering to police after being wrongly suspected of stealing a bicycle, the Los Angles Times reports. Police surrounding the men have their guns in the air, then open fire when one of the men, Ricardo Diaz Zeferino, fidgets and removes his hat. Diaz Zeferino was killed and one of the other men was wounded.
A lawsuit over the death was settled for $4.7 million, but media outlets pressed for the release of the video. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said that releasing the footage served the public interest. “The fact that they spent the city’s money, presumably derived from taxes, only strengthens the public’s interest in seeing the videos,” he wrote in his decision.
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Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com