The first day of the criminal trial for former Lonoke County sheriff's deputy Michael Davis ended with body camera footage showing the graphic and distraught aftermath of the fatal shooting of teen Hunter Brittain.
Davis, charged with felony manslaughter, faces up to ten years in prison in the shooting that happened about 3 a.m. on June 23.
He was fired from the Lonoke County sheriff's office on July 21 for not activating his camera "in a timely way," according to Sheriff John Staley. The traffic stop and shooting were not captured on camera.
The video started with Davis saying, "Shots fired, shots fired."
Blue lights swirl as the camera shifts.
Davis yells "don't move, don't move, don't move" in repetition about six times.
There's yelling as the lights continue to illuminate a sheriff's office vehicle.
"The guy jumped out of the f******* truck, grabbed a f******* oil can," Davis says.
He yells at the passenger -- 16-year-old Jordan King -- asking why the two were "driving like that?"
"One detained, one subject down" can be heard.
The camera starts moving toward Brittain's truck.
Brittain's lifeless body, wearing plaid shorts and a T-shirt, can be seen lying face down in a pool of blood.
Multiple members of Brittain's family rushed from the room crying as they saw his body. Others stayed quietly sobbing. Some watched. Some just listened with their heads lowered.
Davis is one of only five Arkansas law enforcement officers charged in on-duty shootings since 2005, according to data compiled by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Henry A. Wallace Police Crime Public Database. None have been convicted of a felony.
As the video continued, Davis grabs Brittain's leg and drags the body slightly. He then rolls it over.
The camera swirls with blue lights again.
Davis can be heard crying.
The camera stops on the Mahoney's Body Shop Sign, where Brittain had been fixing up his vehicle and where the traffic stop ended.
A woman's voice can be heard.
"You didn't know," the woman says. "It's OK."
Davis replies, "No, it's not."
Someone else later tries to console Davis, "You didn't know that. How could you know?"
The video ends after minutes of Davis sitting alone in a vehicle and audibly crying.
Jurors dabbed eyes.
An hour or so earlier the jury heard Special Prosecutor Jeff Phillips' and defense attorney Robert Newcomb's opening statements.
"Hunter Brittain should be alive today but he is not," Phillips told the jury. "It was a senseless death, and it was a reckless act."
Phillips said Brittain had been working on his truck with his friends King and Landon Crowder. The group started in the afternoon to swap out a transmission in Brittain's truck, Phillips said.
King and Brittain went to test drive it before 3 a.m. Crowder stayed at the repair shop.
"When they started the truck up it was loud and smoking, it continued to be loud and smoking," Phillips said. "They could never get the transmission to shift from first to second."
After driving it, the teens pulled onto a private driveway to put transmission fluid in, Phillips said. It was an attempt to get the transmission to shift, King later said on the stand.
Since the vehicle wouldn't park, King placed a jug of coolant behind the wheel. It worked at keeping the truck in place, King said.
The teens then headed back to the shop.
"He is going to tell you that throughout this trip they are laughing," Phillips said about King."They thought it was funny."
The vehicle couldn't move faster than 25 miles per hour because it wouldn't shift, Phillips said.
They were pulled over and pulled back into the parking lot of the body shop.
"Jordan went to get out to do the same thing with the jug," Phillips said. "Hunter does same thing but is quicker."
King hears the gunshot as soon as he placed a foot on the ground, Phillips said.
Phillips said King did not hear anyone yell to get back in the truck. He did hear, after the shot, someone yell about showing hands.
King was ordered at gunpoint, cuffed and put in the back of a police car. He sat there for three hours, Phillips said.
The teen later testified that he watched as the police worked the scene. He saw the jug that Davis said the teen was grabbing for. The jug stayed after they took Brittain's body, he said.
Crowder, about 50 yards away, saw blue lights. He also never heard anything until after the shot, Phillips said. What he heard was "show me your hands, show me your hands."
"These boys never had any contact, Phillips said.
Newcomb later in the trial criticized Crowder's statements, saying they haven't been consistent. He didn't specify the inconsistency.
"You won't hear Davis in his body camera footage mention asking Brittain to show his hands or telling the teen to get back in the truck," Phillips said. Davis does tell investigators five days later that he gave those commands, he said.
Newcomb also notes that it is standard for the state to interview law enforcement a number of days after an event.
Phillips said Davis also admits to shooting Brittain, while his hands were in the back of the pickup.
"Mr. Phillips and I are going to agree on some things and somethings we will not," Newcomb said in his opening. "I do agree with him that this is a very tragic event that nobody wanted to happen, but it did happen."
Davis was on the way to assist another deputy with a harassment call when he came across the truck driven by Brittain, Newcomb said. He noticed the vehicle "significantly" cross the centerline, he said.
"It was smoking tremendously," Newcomb said.
Davis ran the plates and decided to pull the vehicle over.
Brittain first pulled into the oncoming traffic lane and stopped, Newcomb said. He then turned into the parking lot.
"Before he had the opportunity to put his car in park and get out of it, Mr. Brittain jumped out of the truck," Newcomb says. "He runs fast, slips on the ground, the vehicle starts rolling back. He then immediately starts putting his hands into the back of the truck."
"There's a phrase," Newcomb says to the jury. "If you can't see their hands, their hands can kill you."
Davis had a split second, Newcomb said.
"Davis did not know the car wouldn't go into park," Newcomb said. "We are talking about judging with hindsight."
The shooting event, from the time the blue lights went on, lasted about 22 seconds, Newcomb said.
The trial will continue today.