The video has still not been released to the public - or even acknowledged. Now, two years after the BCA closed its investigation, sources say Mark Lanterman, a private forensic expert hired as part of a civil case, has recovered the footage. Though the BCA took possession of Smith's phone after his death - and the government has possessed it since - sources say the state agency never found the video Smith had recorded. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the agency in charge of investigating law enforcement shootings in Minnesota, said it "wasn't aware" of any video, and instead turned to the public for help finding footage. The 35-second video of the fatal June 3, 2021, encounter - which would remain undiscovered for more than two years - could have been a critical piece of evidence in the direct aftermath, as conflicting accounts of what precipitated the shooting fueled claims from protesters that Smith was "assassinated." Did Smith pull a gun, or was he just raising his phone? Did the undercover task force announce itself? There was no bodycam or dash-camera footage to answer these questions. Then gunfire and broken glass filled the car. "Just shoot," he said, according to sources, and after a brief pause he pulled a handgun from the vehicle's center console and began to raise it. Smith ignored his passenger as she pleaded for him to go with the agents. Marshals Service fugitive task force surrounded his car at an Uptown Minneapolis parking ramp and thumped on the windows, according to sources familiar with the video's contents. started filming.įrom the driver's seat of a parked Maserati, 32-year-old Smith recorded on his cellphone as members of a U.S. In the last seconds of his life, Winston Smith Jr.
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