BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the city of Burlington to release additional body camera footage and records related to an officer’s accidental shooting that killed a mother in 2015.
U.S. Senior Judge James Gritzner ordered Tuesday the unsealing of video footage and investigative records related to the shooting death of 34-year-old Autumn Steele.
He ruled in favor of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit watchdog that had intervened to argue that the records should be released in the public interest. Gritzner says the records will be unsealed in coming weeks after routine redactions of confidential information.
Gritzner ruled that the city’s arguments that the records should remain sealed “carry little weight.” The city had claimed, among other things, that the previous release of 12 seconds of footage from officer Jesse Hill’s body camera was enough.
The city and its insurer recently agreed to pay $2 million to Steele’s family to settle the case.
The deal resolved a lawsuit that claimed a police officer acted recklessly when he killed Steele, then participated in a cover-up that portrayed the shooting as justified as a result of an attacking dog.
