Washington Post: “A Pennsylvania teenager who was in the middle of a mental health crisis had his hands in the air when state police fatally shot him last December, according to new videos released Thursday. Christian Hall, a 19-year-old Chinese American who had been diagnosed with depression, was standing over the ledge of a highway overpass near Stroudsburg, Pa., when troopers with the Pennsylvania State Police tried to persuade him to come off the ledge. Troopers then backed away when they saw Hall had what appeared to be a firearm, which was later determined to be a realistic pellet gun.

“Videos obtained by Spotlight PA and NBC News, the first to report on the footage, show that Hall had his hands in the air for 14 seconds Dec. 30, 2020. The videos, which were also obtained by The Washington Post, show that Hall’s hands remained up, with one of them holding the pellet gun, when two state troopers began firing at him, causing the teen to crumple to the ground almost immediately. Footage previously released by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office blurred the final seconds before Hall was killed. Monroe County District Attorney E. David Christine Jr. ruled that the fatal shooting of Hall was justified and that no one would be charged, saying the lives of the troopers were in danger. Michael Mancuso, an assistant district attorney, described Hall’s death at a March news conference as a “classic suicide-by-cop scenario.”

“Now, Hall’s parents and their attorneys are calling on the Justice Department and the Pennsylvania attorney general to launch an ‘unbiased’ investigation into a police shooting that has shattered the family and the northeastern-Pennsylvania community. Devon M. Jacob, an attorney who has joined civil rights lawyer Ben Crump in representing Hall’s family, told The Post that the unredacted police footage, which were recently released following a subpoena, ‘definitively establishes that Christian was shot in direct response to an order that “If he doesn’t drop it, take him.”'”