"While the Los Angeles Police Department has a long-standing practice of not releasing video evidence pending administrative and criminal investigations, the Chief is exercising his discretion to release video in the interest of public safety," police said in a statement released at the same time as the video.
The video was made public just as Black Lives Matter organizers gathered Tuesday morning to protest Snell's killing at a meeting of the Los Angeles Police Commission. The board of civilian overseers convened at midmorning as demonstrators interrupted speakers and shouted for Beck's resignation.
The 45-second clip is the only surveillance footage connected to the shooting, though detectives are searching for more, according to Officer Sal Ramirez, a police spokesman. He declined comment on when Snell was shot after disappearing around the corner where the shooting occurred.
Officers tried to pull over a car Snell was in because it had temporary paper license plates that did not match the year of the vehicle. Beck said that was a possible indication to officers of a stolen car and something commonly seen in vehicles used by criminals for drive-by shootings.
Snell, seated in the car's back seat, looked at officers and then ducked down "as if to hide from them," Beck said.
When officers tried to pull the car over, Snell jumped out, holding his waistband and the foot pursuit began, Beck said.
After police chased Snell for several hundred yards, Snell took a gun from his waistband and turned in the direction of the pursuing officers, prompting the shooting, Beck said.
The chief also addressed the fatal shooting over the weekend of an unidentified Hispanic man. Beck said the man pointed a replica that looked like a real gun at police, and officers opened fire because they feared for their lives.
The shootings come amid heightened tensions over police actions involving black people and other minorities across the country.
Snell was the third black man in five days to die in confrontations with police in Southern California.
Last Tuesday, Alfred Olango was fatally shot by an officer in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon when Olango took a "shooting stance" and pointed at an officer with what turned out to be a 4-inch vape pen — an electronic cigarette device.
On Friday, Reginald Thomas died after being shot with a Taser by police in Pasadena. He was armed with a knife and was described by family members as mentally ill.
Meanwhile, the family of a black man killed by police in Sacramento in July demanded murder charges Monday against two officers heard on a dashcam video talking about trying to hit the man with their police cruiser before he was shot 14 times.
