Police officer shot in neck had to buy own bodycam (VIDEO)
A body-camera used to convict a suspect of attempted murder was described by the victim as the “best $30 I ever spent.” Police Officer Quincy Smith wasn’t provided a bodycam by Estill Police Department, South Carolina, but instead bought the device on Amazon.
“Dispatch please tell my family I love them,” Smith can be heard saying in the footage released by his lawyer this week. The 19-minute video in which a gun can be seen being pulled on Smith was used to convict his shooter, Malcolm Orr, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Thursday.
Smith was shot four times by Orr after attempting to question him following reports Orr was attempting to steal groceries from a nearby store in January 2016. The Estill officer managed to get back to his patrol car, where he called for help.
“My left arm is broken. I’ve been shot in the neck,” he says to police dispatch, before an ambulance arrives.
Smith’s department does not have body cameras, with the officer taking to Amazon to purchase the pair of glasses with a camera that helped convict Orr, reported WJCL.
Under South Carolina law bodycams are required, but agencies without “full funding” are exempt from enforcing the rule, reported the State.
“Both our families are the ones really suffering the most. Violence and guns aren’t the answer, that’s why I became a police officer,” Smith, who plans to return to the force next year when his recovery is complete, said referring to his and Orr’s loved ones.
READ MORE: Police officer caught ‘planting drugs’ in body-cam footage (VIDEO)
