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Video Emerges of John Crawford's Girlfriend's Interrogation After He Was Killed by Police at Walmart

Ohio detective Rodney Curd can be seen bringing Tasha Thomas to tears, accusing her of lying, asking her if she's on drugs, and threatening to send her to jail, before telling her that her boyfriend was dead.
Image via YouTube

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A video obtained by the Guardian shows an Ohio detective aggressively questioning the girlfriend of John Crawford, the man shot dead by police on August 5 while he was walking around with a BB gun inside a Walmart store.

In the video, obtained by the newspaper through a public records requests, Detective Rodney Curd can be seen bringing Tasha Thomas to tears, accusing her of lying, and threatening to send her to jail.

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"I swear to God," a visibly upset Thomas can be heard repeating over and over as Curd presses her about whether Crawford was armed when he entered the store — he was not.

Crawford was shot dead by a police after a caller in the store phoned 911, saying that Crawford was pointing a gun at passersby. Surveillance footage shows Crawford picking up the gun from a shelf and wandering the aisles while speaking on his cell phone. Thomas said Crawford was carrying only a plastic bag, and that he was at the store to pick up food for a family cookout.

"You lie to me and you might be on your way to jail," Curd chides her. "This might be your last chance, I'm not gonna take another statement."

Asked repeatedly whether Crawford owned a gun, Thomas responds, "Not that I know."

"Don't tell me 'not that you know', because that's the first thing I realize somebody's not telling me the truth," the detective slams back.

As the interrogation progresses Curd can be seen becoming increasingly aggressive, raising his voice and banging his hand on the table. At some point, the detective asks Thomas whether she has been drinking or taking drugs, to which she responds she has only been taking her prescription medicines.

The video shared by the Guardian is a 6-minute excerpt of an interrogation that lasted more than 90 minutes. Only at the end of the interrogation does Curd inform Thomas that her boyfriend had died.

"As a result of his actions, he is gone," he said.

In Ohio, a traditional open-carry state, Crawford would have been free to walk around Walmart with a real rifle. The video of the incident is below.

Surveillance Video Released as Jury Decides Not to Indict in Ohio Walmart Shooting. Read more here.