Two stolen vehicles, two shops burglarized and then two teens shot and killed by an Onondaga County sheriff's deputy. It's an incident that's produced a lot of questions, including: How is it possible there is no body camera footage from the deadly incident?

According to the County Sheriff's Office, two cars, including a Hyundai, were stolen in Syracuse late Tuesday before six people who were allegedly in the stolen cars burglarized two smoke shops overnight.

While investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle in nearby Dewitt on Wednesday, the sheriff's office claims a car drove at the deputy fast enough to kill him. The deputy fired three shots into the car, killing two passengers that the sheriff's office identified Thursday as 17-year-old Dhal Apet and 15-year-old Lueth Mo.

The deputy has been put on paid administrative leave.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Toby Shelley took questions about how there is no bodycam footage from the deputy who shot the two teens.

“Things happen very quickly and hectically," he said. "You need to remember that the deputy responded was at the burglary on Molloy Road. So he knew he was going after, mostly likely, the suspects from that burglary. He knew that there was six suspects.”

The sheriff was asked if the deputy had a bodycam and didn’t activate it, or if there was no bodycam at all.

“He most likely didn’t have time to put that body camera on," Shelley said. "You’d have to put yourself in his shoes.”

The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office released its body-worn camera guidelines on Thursday. Part of the guidelines say the objective of the cameras is to “assist in gathering evidence, promoting transparency and providing an objective record of an incident."

The guidelines also include reasons why a deputy might not turn on the camera. Among them are:

  • There is an immediate threat to the deputy’s safety which would make turning the camera on an impractical step
  • When turning on the camera could delay the deputy’s response to the safety needs of a citizen 
  • The bodycam malfunctions

The New York State Police policy on body cams states that troopers must turn their cameras on before leaving their car when they’re on a call.

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