Shocking bystander footage captured the moment California cops fired a barrage of bullets at a car full of people, killing a black father-of-three.
Diante Yarber, 26, was waiting in the car after driving his cousin and friends to a local Walmart on April 5, when police reportedly acting on a ‘call of a suspicious vehicle’ attempted to stop him.
San Bernardino county sheriff’s department say Yarber had tried to avoid police and had ‘accelerated’ towards officers which is when they opened fire at the car full of passengers, killing Yarber, seriously injuring a female passenger, 23, and causing a minor injury to another passenger.
Diante Yarber was unarmed when he was shot dead by police in a barrage of bullets, in a car full of passengers
Video, shot by a witness on their cellphone appeared to show Yarber’s black Mustang slowly reversing while gunfire rang out across the parking lot
The clip captured the screams of shoppers as officers opened fire on the car
Officers went over to the car after unleashing the hail of gunfire
Video, shot by a witness on their cellphone, captured the screams of shoppers as officers opened fire on the car. The footage appeared to show Yarber’s black Mustang slowly reversing while gunfire rang out across the parking lot.
Attorneys for Yarber’s family estimate that around 30 bullets were fired at the unarmed motorist.
But while police claim Yarber drove at officers in what they describe as an ‘assault’ on an officer, Dale Galipo, an attorney representing the 23-year-old injured female passenger, said the investigation into the shooting showed that no cops had been in the path of the car.
It also showed that Yarber had been unarmed at the time of the shooting.
Yarber died after he was hit two dozen times in the hail of gunfire.
The female passenger was hit in the stomach and leg, and placed in the back of a police cruiser, before she was finally taken to hospital.
Lee Merritt, an attorney representing Yarber’s family, told the Guardian that they were planning to sue the police department over the extreme use of force.
‘They saw a car full of black people sitting in front of a Walmart, and they decided that was suspicious,’ Merritt said. ‘They just began pouring bullets … It’s irresponsible. It’s dangerous. It’s mind-boggling, the use of force.’
San Bernardino county sheriff’s department say Yarber had tried to avoid police and had ‘accelerated’ towards officers which is when they opened fire at the car full of passengers, killing Yarber (pictured with his baby daughter)
Attorneys for Yarber’s family estimate that around 30 bullets were fired at the unarmed motorist (pictured is Yarber at home)
Merritt branded it ‘the worse case of excessive and unnecessary force’ he’s ever seen, adding on Facebook that Yarber was ‘profiled, stalked and murdered’ by police.
The attorney refutes the police’s version of events and says that the 26-year-old and his passengers had been waiting for another passenger to finish shopping at Walmart when they were labeled as ‘suspicious.’
‘When officers, lacking reasonable suspicion for stopping Yarber in the first place, attempted to box his vehicle in, Yarber maneuvered his car around the police vehicles.’
He added that the vehicle was not stolen but belonged to Yarber’s cousin, who had been in the car at the time.
Galipo added that police training dictates that officers should not fire at moving cars as there is a high risk of injuring others.
Aleta Yarber, Diante’s aunt, said that the car did not appear to show any damage that would substantiate the claims it had rammed into police vehicles, after she collected the vehicle following the shooting.
Yarber’s girlfriend, and the mom to their 19-month-old daughter Leilani, was devastated by the loss.
Yarber’s girlfriend Brittany Chandler, (pictured with their child and Yarber) mom to their 19-month-old daughter Leilani, was devastated by the loss
Devastated family and friends paid tribute to the dedicated father Yarber who could ‘make you smile, no matter what’
‘The police took him away for no reason,’ Brittany Chandler told the Guardian. ‘The police should be held accountable for this. They are sick people for them to be able to shoot someone down in broad daylight.’
Merrit is now demanding the police hand over their body and dash cam footage, as well as surveillance footage from Walmart, while he called upon the local district attorney to prosecute officers involved in the shooting.
A police spokeswoman said the officers involved were on paid administrative leave but would not confirm how many were involved.
Family and legal representatives for the passengers in the car say they are traumatized and in shock from the shooting.
Meanwhile, friends and loved ones of Yarber have been left to cope with his loss.
‘It still doesn’t even feel real. I wish I could just wake up and it would be a dream,’ said Chandler, who added that her daughter would have to grow up without a father.
Samantha Robledo, who has a seven-year-old daughter with Yarber, said she too had been left to explain to her child while her father was gone.
She added that her daughter, Naliyah, says: ‘He’s my angel now.’
Robledo added that Yarber had been someone who would always manage to ‘make you smile, no matter what.’
‘You couldn’t be angry around him. He was so loving and friendly, and that’s what we’re going to miss the most.’
Yarber’s family are furious with the police who they branded ‘bullies with badges’.
Ruby Hawkins, Yarber’s sister, said cops often harassed her brother, who worked at a local warehouse, and that they needed to face criminal charges.
The shooting occurred just a few weeks after police shot dead Stephon Clark, an unarmed black father who was in his family’s California back yard, sparking mass protests.