Fayetteville police release dashcam video of 2013 officer involved shooting

Fayetteville police on Friday released the video after it was unsealed by the federal judge presiding over the civil case centered around 20-year-old Lawrence Edward Graham III. Graham was shot in the back by Officer Denton Little while fleeing from a traffic stop.

In the video, officers can be heard saying there is an odor of marijuana coming from the stopped vehicle. Soon after, the driver is escorted out of the car and searched.

The driver gets into a fight with an officer off camera while Little is watching Graham, who was in the vehicle's passenger seat. Little looks over to the scuffle involving the driver, at which point Graham jumps out of the driver's side of the car, carrying a gun.

The video shows Little chasing Graham before pulling out his service gun. Little fired three shots, though the actual shooting is hidden from view of the camera when the two men run in front of the suspects' car.

Graham died about a month after the shooting. It is unclear if his death was related to the gunshot wounds.

Police Chief Harold Medlock said he thinks citizens need to be able to see the video for themselves to understand what happened during the stop.

"This is our effort to continue to build transparency with the community," Medlock said at a news conference Friday.

At the time of the shooting, police body cameras were not in use in Fayetteville. Medlock said the department was researching the technology but had not yet deployed it in the field.