Tuesday, April 25, the Greensboro Police Department released the police body-worn and dash camera videos of the traffic stop on August 21, 2022, that resulted in a Greensboro police officer, Cpl. M.L. Sletten, fatally shooting Nasanto Crenshaw.
In North Carolina, police body-worn camera videos are not public records and can only be released by a court order from a Superior Court judge. In the case of the Crenshaw shooting, the GPD petitioned the court and received permission to release the body-worn camera videos.
All 104 police body-worn and dash camera videos are now posted on the City of Greensboro YouTube site and can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/@CityofGreensboroNC/videos .
Many of those videos are from officers who responded to the site after the shooting had occurred. The video of the traffic stop and the shooting can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2sxuy7CHY .
Sletten’s body-worn camera video shows Sletten out of his police car when the car driven by Crenshaw accelerates toward him. After Sletten fired several shots, the car veered away and came to a stop a short distance away.
Guilford County District Attorney Avery Crump reviewed the evidence in the case and announced that her office would not criminally charge Sletten.
The letter from Crump to the State Bureau of Investigation states, “Based on the findings presented, it is clear the Cpl. M.L. Sletten discharged his service weapon three times at the vehicle that the decedent was driving, thereby causing his death. After careful review, although tragic, the use of deadly force by Cpl. Sletten under these circumstances was justified by both the common law principles of self-defense and also by the statutory provisions of N.C.G.S. 15A-401(d)(2), which permits the use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer to defend himself or another from what he reasonably believes to be imminent use of deadly force.”
Attorneys representing Crenshaw’s family said after reviewing the same videos that they concluded that Sletten should be prosecuted and have asked the Department of Justice to investigate the shooting.
Looking at “Duke” Crenshaw’s obituary photo with him flashing gang signs, I can see why the family’s hired lawyers. They will aver “he dint doo nuffin” and that trying to hit a police officer was justified and being stopped by that police officer violated all principles of right and wrong.
I can see Greensboro giving the miscreant’s family a big payday just to be “equitable”.
The right rear door of the car appears to be open when that car came around. The officer had no way of knowing if someone would fire out of that door opening. This happens time and time again and could be avoided if the street cred of running from the cops did not outway common sense. When a police officer has a pistol pointed at you, their adrenaline level is high and they are concerned for their own safety, yelling at you to get out of the car….. and you make a sudden move in the car or out of the car….bad things can happen. The obituary photo of him in his gangsta pose is sad really. The family wants to blame the city and the cops but it would appear from that photo that he aspired to be a “gangsta” and live the “gangsta life”. Maybe, just maybe if someone would have steered him away from that aspiration none of this would have happened.
Do you smell easy money?
And those will be YOUR tax dollars GSO
Maybe someone should tell the crying baby momma that her 17 year old wannabe gangster should not have been driving around in a STOLEN CAR with an UNLAWFUL GUN and then obey the POLICE. His fault and NO ONE else. Bad things happen when you screw up.
Another Dindu bit the dust. Thuggin’ ain’t easy & not every person shoots like they do on The Boondocks. Sometimes you win a prize.