Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial is now charged with the murder of Eddie Irizarry and officials have released bodycam videos of the deadly Aug. 14 shooting. Questions still remain however, regarding the discrepancies between what was initially reported by Dial’s partner, the report made by police that same day at the scene of the shooting and another report made by Commissioner Danielle Outlaw on Aug. 16.
Here’s what we know about all three reports.
The report from Officer Mark Dial’s partner
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On Friday, Sept. 8, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and members of his office's Special Investigations Unit released the unedited bodycam videos of the shooting from Officer Mark Dial as well as his partner.
The shooting took place on Aug. 14 shortly after noon.
Investigators said Dial and his partner followed Irizarry's car in the city's Kensington neighborhood.
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Irizarry pulled into a parking spot along the 100 block of East Willard Street after traveling in the wrong direction down the street, investigators said.
The officers then stopped their vehicle parallel to Irizarry's car, exited and approached.
The bodycam video shows Officer Dial and his partner getting out of their vehicle with their guns drawn and approaching Irizarry's car. Investigators said Irizarry was holding a small, open folding knife against his thigh. He then rolled up the driver's side window, according to officials.
Dial's partner repeatedly yells, "show me your hands," before appearing to say, "he's got a knife."
"I will f-----g shoot you," Dial shouts at Irizarry, who remains seated in the vehicle.
Only a few seconds later, Dial fires six shots, shattering the driver's side glass and repeatedly shooting Irizarry at close range as he moves toward the front of the car.
Dial then reports "shots fired" on his radio and opens the driver side door. Irizarry lies bloody and motionless in his seat, softly moaning as Dial shouts, "Get your hand up right now!"
Dial repeatedly tells the unresponsive Irizarry to keep his hands up.
Dial and his partner then drag Irizarry's body out of his car and place him into their police vehicle. Dial tells his partner to stay with Irizarry's vehicle. Dial then drives Irizarry to Temple University Hospital and places him on a stretcher as medics attend to him.
The bodycam footage shows Dial walking inside the hospital and washing his hands. On two occasions, he appears to dissuade other officers from approaching him.
Dial then speaks with a hospital staff member.
"Was there any signs of life? Was he doing anything? Talking? Breathing? Anything or no?" the staff member asks Dial.
"Barely," Dial responds.
Doctors pronounced Irizarry dead at the hospital a short time later.
His cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was listed as homicide, investigators said.
The District Attorney's Office also released a second bodycam video from Dial's partner. The audio in that video doesn't begin until after the shooting.
The second bodycam video also includes footage of Dial's partner reporting the incident to responding police officers.
"As I pull up, he starts freaking out. We get out. Mark comes on the driver side. I’m over here. I try to get the door open. I can’t. He pulls out a knife. I tell him, like, ‘Mark! Mark! He’s got a knife! He’s got a knife,'" Dial's partner says approximately six minutes after the shooting. "I saw his body come up like this and then Mark fired."
"Where's the knife? Is it in the car still?" the other officer asks.
"He does have one here. The one he had it might have fell in between somewhere but I don't want to touch nothing," Dial's partner says.
The report from Philadelphia Police on Aug. 14
After Irizarry’s death on Aug. 14, Philadelphia Police spoke with reporters about the shooting.
Police said Irizarry was driving erratically and the wrong way down Willard Street. They also said that Irizarry stepped out of the vehicle with a knife and lunged at one of the officers before Officer Dial fired multiple times.
“Police officers approached the vehicle. A male stepped out of that vehicle with a weapon, with a knife,” Philadelphia Police Corporal Jasmine Reilly said. “And the officers gave multiple commands for him to drop the weapon. The male did not actually. He lunged at the officers.”
Both bodycam videos as well as a surveillance video of the shooting last month show that Irizarry was inside the car the entire time and did not appear to lunge at either officer.
Officer Dial’s partner also does not say that Irizarry was outside the vehicle or lunged at any point while reporting the incident in the bodycam video.
While Reilly read the police report, she was not the person who created it.
The report from Commissioner Danielle Outlaw on Aug. 16
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw spoke to reporters about the shooting during a press conference on Aug. 16.
During the presser, Outlaw acknowledged what she referred to as “misinformation” in the Aug. 14 police report.
“I want to acknowledge that during the press briefing that took place on scene on Aug. 14, 2023, we reported that the preliminary information indicated that the driver was outside of the vehicle at the time of the shooting,” Outlaw said. “At this time, the evidence clearly indicates that the male was not outside of the vehicle and was seated inside of the vehicle at the time of the discharge.”
Outlaw said both Officer Dial and his partner were on patrol in a marked police car when they spotted a Toyota Corolla driving erratically in the area of B Street near Westmoreland. The officers followed the vehicle as it turned on Westmoreland then left onto Lee Street and finally left onto Willard Street, according to Outlaw.
Outlaw said the Corolla then continued the wrong way along 100 East Willard in a single-lane, one-way street. She said the vehicle then pulled into a parking spot mid-block at which point both officers got out of their vehicle.
Outlaw said that Officer Dial’s partner alerted him that the driver of the Corolla, later identified as Irizarry, had a “weapon.” She said Irizarry turned towards Dial who fired at the vehicle “multiple times,” killing Irizarry. Outlaw said Irizarry was then transported to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:48 p.m.
Outlaw’s account appears to be mostly supported by the two bodycam videos, though she states Officer Dial’s partner said Irizarry had a “weapon,” while in the video the partner appears to say “knife.”
Shaka Johnson, an attorney for Irizarry's family, criticized Outlaw's usage of the word "weapon" rather than "knife."
“We heard one officer say to the other, ‘He’s got a knife and then we heard Officer Dial say, ‘drop the knife,'" Johnson said during a press conference last month. "Because from a law enforcement standpoint, I want you all to be aware and clear, ‘weapon’ is much softer and kinder than ‘knife.’”
While Outlaw said that Irizarry turned towards Dial moments before the shooting, it’s unclear from the bodycam videos whether or not he moved while inside the vehicle before Dial opened fire.
To date, police have not revealed who created the initial report that falsely claimed Irizarry was outside the vehicle and lunged at the officers.
During her press conference last month, Outlaw was asked where the initial "misinformation" came from.
"As I stated when asked that before, that is currently under an active investigation," Outlaw said. "I, again, have questions. I have the same questions."
Last week, Johnson said the police department's initial report wasn't a case of misinformation, but rather "conspiracy."
“This from the very beginning has been an onslaught of lies and fairy tales,” Johnson said.
Kevin P. O'Brien, another attorney for the Irizarry family, also criticized the length of time it took for Outlaw to publicly correct the initial police report.
"It took 30 hours from the shooting or from the initial remarks by the public information officer for the police to correct the false statements that Mr. Irizarry got out of the vehicle and lunged at police officers with a knife," O'Brien said. "We know now that didn’t happen.”
O'Brien also disputed Outlaw's statement that it takes a long time to download and view bodycam footage. O'Brien claimed he was told that an investigator with the Citizens Police Oversight Commission was on the scene and reviewed the bodycam footage within two hours of the shooting.
“Why it took another 28 hours for the police to correct that false narrative? I don’t know," O'Brien said. "I think everyone here, myself, and certainly the family, are extremely distressed and disappointed in the police department’s initial false narrative."
NBC10 reached out to Philadelphia police last week for a reaction to the comments made by Johnson and O'Brien. A spokesperson said they could not comment due to the ongoing investigation.
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
