Ramsey: Let's share police-shooting video with victim's mom

JUST SHOW ME the video.

That's been Tanya Brown-Dickerson's message to the Philadelphia Police Department ever since her son, Brandon Tate-Brown, was fatally shot during a controversial struggle with two patrol cops in Mayfair on Dec. 15.

It looks as if she might finally be close to getting her wish.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told the Daily News last night that he talked with Brown-Dickerson about the possibility of viewing surveillance footage of the incident.

"I told her I'm going to reach out and see whether the district attorney would object to her and her lawyer viewing the video in private," Ramsey said.

The commissioner called Brown-Dickerson yesterday afternoon to apologize for not informing her that the two officers were cleared weeks ago of any potential departmental violations, and had been returned to active duty.

"It's my fault that I didn't get to her earlier," he said. "There's no excuse for that."

Although Ramsey seems inclined to let Brown-Dickerson view the footage, he is opposed to releasing the officers' names, which Brown-Dickerson and her supporters have also called for.

He cited "toxic" tensions that have emerged in the wake of controversial police-involved deaths in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

"Am I releasing the names? No," he said. "Everybody needs to be mindful of the fact that this has gotten to the point where we had two officers shot and killed in New York by someone who wanted to use the controversies as an excuse to commit murder."

But he noted that the names would have been made public if they had been found guilty of a violation or misconduct.

Ramsey said independent witnesses, in addition to the surveillance footage, backed up the Police Department's account of what happened after the officers pulled Tate-Brown over while he drove a 2014 Dodge Charger on Frankford Avenue near Magee two months ago.

The department said the officers stopped Tate-Brown for driving with his headlights off, only to spot a handgun in the vehicle.

The department said that he resisted being handcuffed, violently struggled and then lunged for a handgun inside his car, prompting one officer to shoot him.

But TV footage of the scene minutes later shows the car's headlights on, and Tate-Brown's family believes he was stopped for "driving while black" and shot in the back of the head by a racist cop.

Relatives disputed cops' assertion that he had a gun in the car, and suggested that it was planted. Police policy requires officers involved in on-duty shootings to be placed on desk duty until an investigation is complete.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that both the homicide unit and Internal Affairs finished investigating Tate-Brown's death and found no evidence that the officers broke departmental rules or otherwise erred. Investigators' findings were given to the District Attorney's Office for review to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

D.A. spokesman Cameron Kline said that his office is still investigating and that he couldn't comment further.

Attorney Brian Mildenberg, who represents Tate-Brown's family, said he wrote to the city Law Department's civil-rights unit several weeks ago to formally ask for the videotape and other evidence in the case. He has gotten no response.

"If the evidence is in favor of the officers and the videotape shows that, that will provide closure to the family and will remove any unwarranted suspicion from the officers and the department," Mildenberg said.

"The fact that they are not releasing it has left open questions. Our purpose is not to stand up and say we know this is a wrongful death. We don't know that yet because we have not been presented with the evidence. And in a democracy, that's scary."

The officers' return to active duty didn't surprise Tate-Brown's mother, who considers her son's death wrongful.

"Of course I'm disgusted with it. But it doesn't discourage me, because that's what they always say," Brown-Dickerson told the Daily News yesterday, before she was contacted by Ramsey. "Show us the proof now. They said once the investigation is up, I would get proof. Then show me. Show me the footage. Until I see that, it's not over."

Brown-Dickerson has marched with supporters almost weekly since her son's death, protesting police brutality and demanding answers about her son's case. On Saturday, she and other protesters will march from the scene of her son's death to the 15th District headquarters at Harbison Avenue and Levick Street. On Feb. 28, she'll speak at a rally in Bridgeton, N.J., protesting the Dec. 30 police-involved shooting death there of Jerame Reid.

"We're not settling for your systemic oppression," Brown-Dickerson said of the Police Department. "We're not settling for you saying, 'Well, it's going to get better, we're working on it.' You've been saying that for 75 years."