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On March 10, 2019, a 911 caller reported four people breaking into a house in Oklahoma City. The caller said the group might have firearms, but “wasn’t sure if they were real.” A white officer with the Oklahoma City Police Department, Sgt. Kyle Holcomb, approached the scene along a fence line and heard what were clearly Airsoft/BB guns being fired in the vicinity of an abandoned house. Holcomb acknowledged this in body cam footage, telling fellow officers, “I think it’s a cap gun.”
Yet when he came to a hole in the fence, Holcomb spotted an African-American boy coming out of the house and opened fire within 0.6 seconds. The boy was given no time to comply with instructions to show his hands.
14 year-old Lorenzo Clerkley, Jr. was hit twice, in the hip and thigh. He had no BB gun in his hands at the time. Another officer handcuffed Clerkley as he urinated himself and dragged him over broken glass to the side of the house. As he lay on the ground bleeding and crying, Officer Holcomb stood over Clerkley and did nothing to assist, forcing him to remain cuffed and on his stomach until an ambulance arrived.
Clerkley was charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering along with his friends. He missed three weeks of school recovering from his injuries. His family has no insurance and is struggling to pay bills for his treatment, including a $1,300 ambulance ride from the scene of the shooting.
Officer Holcomb is facing no charges or disciplinary action from his department for his attempted murder of Clerkley.
Please contact interim Oklahoma City Police Chief Jeff Becker and Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:
I watched and listened to Officer Kyle Holcomb’s body cam footage from March 10, 2019. There is NO WAY anyone could have mistaken the Airsoft/BB gunfire we hear in the video for real gunfire. Holcomb admits as much when he tells fellow officers, “I think it’s a cap gun.” Yet when Holcomb came to a hole in the fence he gave Lorenzo Clerkley, Jr. only 0.6 seconds(!) to comply with instructions to show his hands before putting two rounds into him. You know damn well this was an act of attempted murder. Officer Holcomb’s life wasn’t in danger. The only person whose life was in danger was Lorenzo Clerkley. Thank God he is still with us today and wasn’t killed in cold-blood by Holcomb. Now you want to charge this 14 year-old with a crime on top of it?! NO!!! NO!!!! I have had ENOUGH. This type of behavior from the Oklahoma City Police is barbaric, racist, and incompetent. I will not tolerate it any longer. DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST LORENZO CLERKLEY, JR. IMMEDIATELY. And CHARGE KYLE HOLCOMB WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER for this shooting. Show you are something other than blood-thirsty white supremacists. Show you actually care about justice and serving this community. If you don’t, I will be organizing politically to ensure you never see elected or appointed office again.
Interim Oklahoma City Police Chief Jeff Becker
Phone: (405) 231-2121
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okcpd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/okcpd
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater
Phone: (405) 713-1600
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oklahomacountyclerk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/okdistattorneys
Once you have contacted Interim Chief Becker and/or DA Prater, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!