Mother Visits Son Shot By Police For First Time
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - People who watched televised surveillance video of a Dallas police officer shooting a man who appears to be standing still are outraged. The video suggests Bobby Bennett, 52, never lunged at officers before he was shot in the abdomen on Monday. Officers responded to Bennett's home after a 911 call as made about the mentally ill man sitting in the street outside his home.
Bennett remains in Baylor Hospital, where police allowed his mother to visit him for the first time Friday night.
"I'm so glad to get to see him it's been a long four days for me," said Bennett's mother Joyce Jackson.
Jackson was prohibited from seeing Bennett because he was charged with attempted assault of a police officer.
"He's still got a lot of ways to go but at least the breathing tube has been taken out and he can converse a little bit."
Dallas Police Chief David Brown dropped the charges against her son Friday afternoon.
A local civil rights group has called for an federal investigation of the Dallas Police Department since an offense report of the shooting claims Bennett attacked the officers but the video suggests otherwise.
Bennett's neighbors say he wasn't a threat to anyone despite his struggle with mental illness. He's known for riding his bicycle around his Southeast Dallas neighborhood and pulling a wagon with a sign that says glory bound.
The officer involved in the incident, Officer Cardan Spencer, is on administrative leave. A police report said Bennett lunged at him with a knife, but Officer Spencer claims to have never given a written account of the shooting.
Thus, the question remains -- who did?
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