[imagesource: Facebook / Lindsay Myeni]

On Wednesday, April 14, three Honolulu police officers responded to a “burglary in progress” shortly after 8PM at a home in Nuuanu, Hawaii.

Whilst one of the officers said he had his bodycam switched off, the two others did not, and the final moments of KwaZulu-Natal rugby player Lindani Myeni’s life were captured on camera.

Myeni moved to Hawaii just over a year ago with his wife, Lindsay, who is from Hawaii, along with their two children.

According to TimesLIVE, Myeni “played club rugby as a flank for Durban’s Jaguars, the Empangeni Rhinos and in eSikhawini — where he had a passion for developing the sport in his hometown.”

Authorities have now released some of the footage recorded by the officers, in the form of a 55-second video and a 31-second video.

Here those are, with a warning that it makes for very difficult watching:

Here’s the second of the two videos the department released. pic.twitter.com/VRycQTo8Fj

— Mark Ladao (@krameleon) April 17, 2021

You can see the same footage below, from the 1:50 mark:

According to Honolulu Police Department chief Susan Ballard, officers were told there was a “burglary in progress”.

However, some parts of the story, as initially reported, don’t seem to add up:

[Ballard] said Myeni entered and began chatting with the homeowners, who were upset  he had come inside. Myeni left shortly afterwards and “sat in his vehicle” before police arrived, she said.

Ballard was unable to answer if Myeni had actually taken anything from the home, which would substantiate the reason for labelling it a burglary.

On Facebook, Lindsay has spoken about the shock of the past few days:

She has also spoken about her determination to see justice served:

During an interview with CapeTalk’s Zain Johnson, Lindsay pointed to race as a potential mitigating factor:

We pass that house every day and a few times he’d said: Wow, that’s a beautiful house!

…I have honestly no clue why he was at the house; maybe he just wanted to ask them something about the house because he loved that house.

This whole story doesn’t add up… He took off his shoes to enter the house – it’s a sign of respect… If I was with him, as a white woman, it wouldn’t have happened…

The history of America is really built on the back and sweat and blood of black people… We must never forget that…

In the wake of increased pressure on the Honolulu Police Department (HPD), acting deputy chief Allan Nagata has defended the officers, saying they “did everything right” as they were in “the fight for their lives”.

HPD says they were authorised to use lethal force after Myeni injured three of their officers, and using Tasers proved ineffective.

Again, from TimesLIVE:

“It [the Taser] was ineffective and the suspect begins assaulting the third officer. The suspect then charges towards the first officer who then fires a single shot at the suspect,” said Nagata during a press conference…

“The footage occurs at night and the lighting is limited. It takes place in the front yard and driveway where several vehicles are parked. The officers were responding to a call from a distraught female who was reporting an unknown male in her home,” said Nagata.

However, Myeni family lawyer James Bickerton says the police are “still hiding facts” about the incident:

[Bickerton] said Honolulu police used “mag lights” which were so bright that they could be blinding to the person who they were being pointed at.

“The person in the light beam can see nothing but the light, while the police can see clearly. We see no evidence that Lindani knew the men who were threatening him were police,” said Bickerton.

“They did not announce ‘police’ until after they shot him… from what we have seen we know some things. Notwithstanding HPD’s claim of no racial issue here, Lindani was not even given the chance to hear the required words ‘this is the police’,” said Bickerton.

You can read more from Bickerton here.

The investigation is still ongoing, and Bickerton is demanding that HPD releases the full bodycam footage.

Efforts to repatriate Myeni back to South Africa are ongoing, and it’s expected that his body will be flown home later this week.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive&capetalk]