THE INVESTIGATORS: Video raises new questions in deadly officer-involved shooting

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The 9News Investigators have obtained new video that shows the deadly encounter between Deaughn Willis and police.

Willis was mistaken for his twin brother when officers showed up to his house last month. The video raises more questions about exactly what happened.

The video shows shooting break out and officers scramble for cover. The wild scene unfolded right outside of an apartment on George O’Neal Road in Baton Rouge last month. The man on the other side of the door was 25-year-old Deaughn Willis.

Police were not there for Willis but were actually looking for his twin brother Keaughn Willis. This video obtained by the 9News Investigators shows the moments when deputies banged on the door. When bullets started flying, Deaughn was left dead. At one point during the video deputies can be seen seeming to joke about knocking on the door.

“They know it’s the police now,” one officer can be heard saying. Attorney Ashley Greenhouse says that’s a big problem and this situation took a turn from the moment officers knocked on the door without announcing themselves.

”I think that they put this family in a very tough situation when they even came to the door and refused to announced themselves.. just violently knocking on the door,” said Greenhouse.

“It creates a dangerous situation for all parties involved. ”We now know Louisiana State Police has cleared the deputy who fired his weapon of any wrongdoing and he’s back at work. The shooting has also been deemed justified. Ring video is the only video of the deadly encounter WAFB has been able to obtain. For whatever reason, the video cuts out right before Willis answers the door so you cannot see what unfolded between him and police. Attorneys representing the family are demanding that all body camera video be released. The only problem is that EBRSO deputies are not equipped with body cameras but we’re told Baton Rouge Police Department officers were also on the scene at the time but it’s unclear what if anything their body cameras may have captured.”

If East Baton Rouge does not have the body camera, that’s even more of the problem because you see Scottie if there were body cameras there not only would there be some accountability as far as these officers are concerned, particularly the bad actors that we’re always concerned about and we’re always talking about but perhaps those body cameras would show that officers did the right thing,” said Greenhouse.

There is also conflicting information on what exactly happened before and after the deadly shooting. Police tell WAFB Deaughn answered the door and pointed a gun at police but the family has said that’s not true.

A source close to the case tells the 9News Investigators that someone inside the home later admitted to state police that they intentionally hid two guns inside the home before police came in. WAFB’s Scottie Hunter asked the family’s attorney what her reaction is to those claims.

”It’s highly offensive,” said Greenhouse. The family’s attorneys tell WAFB they don’t trust anything coming out of Louisiana State Police, pointing to the mounting criticism and federal investigation into the agency over alleged mishandlings and coverup of their own cases.

”The state police is obviously under a lot of scrutiny and we’re talking about right now should they even be investigating these types of cases and there’s just not that much trust that can be put into anything that the state police has said,” Greenhouse added.

Now that the investigation has wrapped, the case has been handed over to the EBR District Attorney’s Office and the DA begins the long work of combing through all available evidence to determine if the case will go before a grand jury.

There is currently no timeline on when the DA will finish reviewing the evidence.

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