Death, answers and videotape

It’s been three months since Joseph Mann was killed near SN&R’s offices. Neighbors had called 911 to report an armed black man, acting “erratically.”

What happened next remains in question, but ultimately, police fired their guns.

Struck 14 times, Mann died. The police claimed justification: He had a knife; he might have had a gun.

In the weeks after, the victim’s family pushed for details. Mann was mentally ill and they had a right to know how police interacted with him, his family said. Unsatisfied, the family called press conferences and filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Questions continued until a reporter for The Sacramento Bee obtained storefront surveillance footage. Soon after, the police finally released its dashcam video, and local reporters jumped to analyze it all.

Kris Hooks, an SN&R freelancer, was the first to note it appeared that two officers tried to hit Mann with their patrol car. The paper’s Associate Editor Raheem F. Hosseini followed up with additional reporting and analysis.

Joseph Mann’s case is finally getting the widespread attention it deserves. Shortly after The Bee and SN&R published stories, national media including the Washington Post and BuzzFeed followed suit. With continued coverage, Mann’s family may finally get its answers.

Thank the videos for that—and the hard work of local reporters. Without dogged journalism, Joseph Mann’s story may have gone largely unchecked, a tragic footnote in ongoing stories about how police deal with both black men and those who are mentally ill.

That would be a real crime.