Black Lives Matter Little Rock on Tuesday night called on the city's Police Department to turn over the investigation of a fatal shooting by an officer to an outside agency.
Officer Dennis Hutchins shot and killed 46-year-old Roy Lee Richards on Oct. 25 while responding to reports of a disturbance on the 500 block of East Eighth Street, police said.
Little Rock police have said Richards was chasing a man later identified as his uncle while "pointing a long gun at his back." It was then that officer Hutchins fired multiple shots, striking and killing Richards, a news release from police issued the day after the shooting stated.
Hutchins said he fired because he believed that Richards was going to shoot his uncle in the back, according to the release.
Addressing the city's Board of Directors on Tuesday night, Zachary Miller, a member of the leadership team of Black Lives Matter Little Rock, said the organization discovered conflicts between eyewitness statements and Police Department statements after the shooting.
"We set out on a fact-finding mission to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the Little Rock Police Department," Miller said at the meeting.
In a video produced by Black Lives Matter Little Rock and sent to Arkansas-Democrat Gazette website Arkansas Online on Tuesday, Darrell Underwood, Richards' uncle, said he was inside his house when his nephew was shot.
[MORE INFORMATION: All updates in fatal Little Rock officer-involved shooting]
In the lead-up to the shooting, Underwood called 911 and requested that police go to his downtown Little Rock home, saying, "Now don't hurt him. I just want him out of my yard and away from my house," according to his 25-second 911 call.
Underwood said in the video that he put Richards on the ground, held him down and told him, "Roy, man, when I let you up, I want you to go home."
Neighbor Henry Michael Stotts noticed the two men struggling outside and watched as two officers walked from Eighth and Commerce streets, where a police car was parked, Stotts said in the video.
Stotts said he told Underwood and Richards "the cops are here, please stop," according to the video.
Underwood said he then let Richards up and turned to go back inside, at which point his nephew grabbed a gun.
When Underwood saw the weapon, he said he asked his nephew, "What are you going to do with that beside make me mad?" and walked up his steps, across his porch and into his house, locking the door behind him, according to the video.
Underwood then said he woke up a resident of the house and told him Richards was outside "acting crazy." He said the two of them were standing in a hallway inside the house when he heard shots ring out.
"When Roy got shot, I was in the house," Underwood said. "I didn't hear the police say anything."
According to the immediate police report regarding the shooting, Underwood stated to officers that Richards "began moving towards him pointing the rifle, when police arrived and engaged [him]."
Miller said Black Lives Matter Little Rock is continuing to ask people to email Police Chief Kenton Buckner and the city Board of Directors to request an independent investigation of the shooting.
Lt. Steve McClanahan, Little Rock police spokesman, said the department's homicide unit is investigating the shooting and will not be turning it over to an outside agency.
Metro on 11/02/2016