LANSING, Mich. — Stephen Romero’s family is grieving. The father and husband died after an officer-involved shooting Dec.1. in the 1600 block of Massachusetts Avenue.
According to a nearly 8 minute edited video released by the Lansing Police Department, the incident started with a 911 call from Romero’s wife.
“Umm, my husband’s really drunk and he just slapped me across my face and he’s just really drunk and being violent,” the wife told dispatch.
After that, police received two more calls. One from a child who said Romero was their stepdad and another from a caller alleging a woman in the area was shot by a man, that neighbor did not identify that man as Romero.
The video also shows two Lansing police officers’ body cameras as they made their way to the scene, approaching Romero with their guns drawn.
From there the video shows Romero getting on the ground and lifting up his shirt. A gun is visible. While the video stops right before the actual shooting happened, still frames appear to show Romero’s hand on the gun multiple times
You don’t see Steven at any time point the firearm, brandish the firearm, threaten the firearm or do anything that will support that this was a justified shooting,” said James Harrington with Fieger Law.
Fieger Law, who is now supporting Romero’s family in a Civil rights lawsuit against the city, said the police department lacked transparency by putting out edited clips of the incident
“They’re hiding from the truth,” Harrington said. “The lack of transparency is extremely, disappointing,”
We reached out to LPD for comment on the lawsuit and were told they have no comment at this time because they have not been served yet.
As for the two officers involved in the shooting, they remain on paid administrative leave.
