HOUSTON — Body camera video has been released of a shootout in which a man was shot to death by Houston police while they attempted to serve him a warrant.
The bodycam video shows the angle of nine different officers who were at the scene when 27-year-old Charion Lockett was shot and killed by police in front of his family's home.
The incident happened on Feb. 7 and since then, Lockett's family has been raising a lot of questions surrounding his death.
The warrant, which was filed three days before Lockett's death, was for an aggravated robbery charge. The alleged robbery happened in November, according to court documents.
Lockett's family said they received a call from police about the warrant less than an hour before they said Lockett was "ambushed" by police outside his family's home.
The family is accusing the police of firing at Lockett first and plans on filing a federal lawsuit against the officers involved.
"In the video footage released by HPD, it shows officers arriving to the scene, you hear gunshots and then you hear more gunshots," Lockett's family attorney said. "What they want you to think is that the initial gunshots came from Charion Lockett."
The attorney continues to say that the video does not show Lockett firing any shots.
But the president of the police union says you can hear two gunshots and see an officer duck before he returns fire from an unmarked car.
"Oh s--t! Stop! Stop! Stop!" said one of the officers in the marked unit after the first shots were fired.
“They were obviously fired upon first, and our officers took appropriate action," said HPOU President Douglas Griffin.
Randall Kallinen, another attorney representing the Lockett family, said when officers arrived on the scene, not one of them identified themselves as police and they were in an unmarked car.
"It (the video) shows Officer Inocencio in an undercover vehicle, not marked, opening his car door, pointing a gun out and shooting," Kallinen said. "And not one single officer said, 'Houston police, police, hands up,' nothing."
The Houston Police Department paints a different picture.
Chief Troy Finner said before officers could get out of the car, Lockett shot at them multiple times so officers returned fire.
“I can understand the family being hurt that they’ve lost a loved one. I completely understand that part of it, but I also understand that our officers have to protect themselves," Griffin said.
Lockett's attorneys said their client wanted to be a lawyer and had a master's in criminal justice. According to Lockett's mom, he was studying for the LSAT when he was killed.
"My son was a loving person. All he cared about was his family," his mother said. "He took care of everybody."
You can watch the bodycam video, which was released to the public on Thursday, in the links below: