Police in Norfolk are investigating a video posted on Facebook Live that appears to show the shooting and injuring of three Virginia men, as it occurred.
“We are aware of the video and the police are looking into it,” said Daniel Hudson, Norfolk Police Department public information officer, to the Hollywood Reporter.
The video showed the actual shooting and its aftermath, including the transport of “three people to the hospital with life threatening injuries,” said Norfolk police.
Reports of the video first surfaced on Twitter, when a user wrote: “3 boys just got shot on Facebook live in Berkeley smh,” in reference to a particular neighborhood in Norfolk.
The Twitter message, posted by someone named T.J. Williams, also included a link to the Facebook Live video. The video opens with three men sitting in their car, listening to music and smoking. The man in the front passenger side, very likely T.J. Williams, appears to be looking directly into the camera lens as he sings with the music. About five-and-one-half minutes into the video, gunfire erupts, the camera falls to the floor and chilling silence ensues from the car.
As the Hollywood Reporter stated: “The camera falls to the floor and the remaining clip, which plays for over an hour, captures the sounds of witnesses followed by the first responders attempting to save the men. ‘Stay with me, stay with me,’ a man can be heard upon discovering the men. When the responders arrive, a witness can be heard saying the three men have been shot.”
Facebook Live just a week ago included a post that showed the immediate and bloody aftermath of the police shooting of Philando Castile. The video was shot and uploaded by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was in the car and started videotaping on her cell phone, shortly after police pulled them over for a broken taillight and shot Castile.
Norfolk police posted a statement about the video feed and incident on their website that read, in part: “Norfolk dispatchers received a call for gunshots heard in the 900 block of Bainbridge Boulevard. As police responded to the scene, the call was quickly updated to possibly three gunshot victims. Upon arrival, officers located three men inside a vehicle suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.”
Police, who did not identify the victims, did say they were ages 27 and 29 and had suffered “significant injuries.”
