CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Thane Chown was locked out of his Charlotte, North Carolina, home on Monday after police with high-powered rifles descended on his yard and garage, using his car as a shield. Encountered a shower of gunfire From the direction of the neighbor's house.
As bullets whizzed by just a few meters away, Chown pulled out his cell phone and began talking. Live stream the standoff An incident between authorities and a fugitive man wanted for possession of a firearm by a former felon.
By the end of the ordeal, five people were dead, including four police officers and the gunman, and more were injured. Worst single day incident for U.S. law enforcement Since 2016.
of deadly gunfight He also explained that bystanders holding smartphones don't necessarily take cover when bullets start flying. They are increasingly looking to livestream their perspectives on attacks. Experts say the reaction reflects the new role of bystanders in the age of smartphones.
“It's kind of become a social norm,” says Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the University of Southern California's Annenberg College.
Humanity has always struggled to define the responsibilities of bystanders in crisis situations, North said. As in Charlotte's situation, it's not always safe to intervene. People can feel helpless when they are not doing anything. Social media offers a third option.
She says the “new responsibility of bystanders” in the digital age is to record what happens on their phones.
“It used to be, 'If you see something, say something,'” North said. “Now it's, 'If you find something, start recording.'”
Chown was leaving for work when federal marshals blocked off his driveway, forcing him to hide in his garage and lock the ignition of his truck for safety. He crouched by the door, knocking with one hand to let his son in, and recording with the other.
Chown said he would not have risked his life to record the video if he had not been trapped outside. But as it was, he thought: Didn't see that coming. ”
Lyssa Lane, a youth coordinator who lives in the neighborhood, said she was cleaning her house when she heard gunshots and went outside to find out what was going on.
When she heard the sirens, she started recording and thought she would share the video to Charlit, a Facebook group with 62,000 members where residents post about news and events. She didn't realize how serious the situation had become until a SWAT vehicle pulled up behind her.
“Once I got out there, I was like, 'Oh, no.' This is an active situation,” she said. “And the next thing you know, you're in the middle of something much bigger than you thought.”
Lane saw live streaming as a way to keep the community informed, she said.
“When you watch it, it puts things into perspective and you see that it's really real and not just something you read about or hear on the news,” she said of the livestream video. I did. “When you see it, you know it’s real.”
Mary Angela Bock, a media professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said there are many reasons why someone would pull out their phone in a situation like Charlotte's. There will always be people who choose to record videos because of their human fascination with violence or because they want to put someone in an embarrassing situation.
“There are good reasons why good people respectfully document police activity and government activity of all kinds from a safe distance in the interest of civil rights. “We are all in this together,'' she said. “We are all in this together.''
Bock, who studies people who film law enforcement, said police leaders often tell her they support the idea of respectful distance citizen video because it produces more evidence. Ta. But in a crisis, that can sometimes be easier said than done.
“Officers often talk about how video doesn't always tell the whole story, and it's true. The video has to start and stop. Some people may not have been there in the first place. , some people may not have seen the whole picture, one perspective is not the whole picture,” she said.
“That's why I encourage people to respectfully record from a distance, because the more viewpoints you have, the better when triangulating. Multiple views of a scene. If you can see it, you can better understand what happened,” Bock said.
Many federal appeals courts have upheld the right to record police activities in public.
Stephen Dubofsky, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said that for people in such situations, connecting with others through live streaming may provide a sense of relief.
“You could be at risk if you go outside, but you're just looking at it through your phone,” he says. “You're watching it through the video, so you're one step away from the video.”
In Choeun's video, two agents can be seen taking shelter behind a vehicle. Another agent is seen lying on the ground next to a garden fence, with what appears to be bullets flying around him.
“It was very sad for law enforcement,” he said. “I know they didn't choose to die in my backyard, but they were just doing their job. And that's what happened to them, leaving their families behind. .”
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Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia.