"Get on the ground now! Get on the ground now! Get your fucking ass on the ground! Fresno Police Department!" one of the officers, wielding a shotgun, shouts. "Drop whatever you have in your hand! If you come forward, you're gonna get shot, man!"
Noble continues approaching police and can be heard yelling "I fucking hate my life!" a moment before shots are fired.
One of the unidentified Fresno officers initially fired two shots, after which Noble collapsed to the pavement, then rolled onto his back.
The officers demanded he keep his hands away from his waistband. When the seriously wounded Noble didn't comply, they each fired one more shot.
Noble had no weapons and the object he was holding was a small, clear plastic container, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said at a news conference called to release the video.
Dyer said that he decided to release what he called "extremely disturbing" footage in an effort to answer questions raised by the release last week of a bystanders' cellphone video that shows the last two shots fired.
“I anticipate that some of this video will answer many of the questions out there in this community,” Dyer said. “However, I believe this video is also going to raise questions in the minds of people, just as those questions exist in my mind as well.”
Dyer acknowledged the police video will anger many in the community.
"Tensions are high," Dyer said. "In some cases we are one spark away from a forest fire. And I pray this video doesn't serve as that spark."
Dyer said he intended to make the video public last Friday, but he held off because of the shooting deaths of police in Dallas the night before. The video was shown last week to Noble's father and stepfather.
Dyer, who has asked the FBI to do its own investigation into the shooting, said he has yet to conclude if officers used excessive force.
According to the Fresno Bee's account of Dyer's press conference:
Dyer said some of the video will answer many of the questions out in the community, but it may raise other questions – particularly whether the last two rounds fired by officers were necessary.
“I, too, have questions about the last two rounds fired,” Dyer said, and whether they were “absolutely necessary or were there other options.”
He said he is awaiting the conclusion of the investigation – a criminal investigation as well as an internal affairs investigation – before he can answer whether the officers followed department policy and the laws governing use of force, and whether the last two rounds fired at Noble were necessary.
“I will make the right decision for this city, and the right decision for the officers involved,” Dyer said. He said he would look at every one of the four rounds that were fired, and whether each of them was needed and within the law.
The killing of Noble, who was white, came more than a week before widely publicized fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Like those episodes, the Noble shooting has sparked protest marches in Fresno, including one immediately after police released the body-cam video on Wednesday.
Noble's parents and their attorney reacted skeptically -- and angrily -- after the video was released. From the Fresno Bee:
Warren Paboojian, an attorney for the teen’s father, Darren Noble, met with reporters at his northwest Fresno office after Dyer spoke at police headquarters.
“I want to focus on one real important area,” said Paboojian. “This is a traffic stop. By no stretch of the imagination do we get (from) traffic stop to felony.”
“People are going to question Dylan’s conduct of why he did certain things,” Paboojian said. “The officers never gave Dylan an explanation or a chance to speak. The officers never, in those 30 commandments that Jerry Dyer indicated, did they ask him, ‘Do you have a gun?’ All they were doing was telling a young boy who may have been under the influence of some alcohol to do a bunch of commands for a routine traffic stop.”
Darren Noble, who had an opportunity to view the footage earlier this month, had a harsh assessment of the officers’ encounter with his son.
“He got murdered,” Noble said. “There was no reason for them to even have guns drawn down on him for a traffic stop.”
... Noble’s mother, Veronica Nelson, has filed a claim against the city, saying Fresno police made no attempt to use anything less than lethal force.
Stuart Chandler, Nelson’s attorney, filed the claim on Monday. In it, Chandler alleges Nelson has suffered loss of companionship and “significant emotional and mental distress as a result of the senseless and brutal shooting death of her son.”
After learning the body camera footage has been made public, Chandler said, “What transpired is something that shouldn’t happen in civilized society.” He also urged city leaders to ensure the police department no longer acts this aggressively and “to take full responsibility for Dylan Noble’s death.”
This post contains reporting from The Associated Press.