KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) The attorney for the family of two brothers killed in a shooting at a Missouri convenience store said video of the incident supports a murder charge.
Howard Lotven provided the video exclusively to Nexstar’s WDAF on Tuesday.
The alleged shooter, identified as Emanuel Hernandez, 27, is charged with voluntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of one of the men on July 20. He is not facing charges in the other.
Hernandez posted $5,000 of a $50,000 bond Tuesday and was released from jail.
The surveillance video from inside the Kansas City store runs for approximately 70 seconds. WDAF chose not to air the full video due to its graphic nature.
The video’s first 35 seconds show Hernandez enter the store and get into an apparent argument with Taylor and Byron Garrett.
Taylor then appears to punch Hernandez.
Hernandez then appears to grab a gun from his waistband and chases the brothers several feet through the store before shooting them.
Both Taylor and Byron Garrett can be seen falling to the floor.
The video then apparently shows Hernandez pistol-whip Byron before walking away.
Prosecutors have charged Hernandez with voluntary manslaughter in the death of Byron Garrett, but he does not currently face any charges for the death of Taylor Garrett.
Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said evidence showed that Taylor was the initial aggressor in the confrontation.
Lotven says he believes Hernandez should be considered the aggressor and that police and prosecutors are missing a key part of the story.
“It actually started before then when Mr. Hernandez was driving down a wrong-way street, the Garretts flagged him down to tell him he was going the wrong way, and he started an argument with them and then followed him to the station,” Lotven said.
Lotven says family has told Kansas City police there’s a witness to that road rage — Byron Garrett’s 7-year-old daughter, who was in the car — but they won’t interview her.
Neither KCPD nor the prosecutor’s office would comment Tuesday on whether they believe road rage was involved. Kansas City Police said charging documents contain the only publicly available information in the case at this time.
Lotven says the $5,000 bail Hernandez had to put up seems low for what he sees as a case that could be prosecuted with up to two murder charges.
“There has to be a point in the law where you lose your right to self-defense if the harm or threatened harm or perceived harm has stopped and no longer existed,” he said of Hernandez’s continued shots and pistol whipping after they lay on the store’s floor.
