Citizen Report No. 1635635611 - 1104678468

The officer in question is David Godin, a 20-year veteran who was the first police officer to approach Root as he wielded a paintball gun near Brigham and Women's Hospital on Feb. 7, 2020. He shot at Root at that scene, and was part of the car chase that ended in a Chestnut Hill parking lot. There, four Boston police officers and one state trooper fired 31 shots at Root, killing him.

In interviews with investigators five days after the shooting, Godin said he wasn't wearing his body camera at all, even though department policy required it. He said the camera was in his duty bag.

“I don’t keep it on my body unless I get out for a call,” he told investigators.

Godin repeated that explanation in a sworn statement as part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Root family.

"I was more concerned with apprehending the suspect who I believed just fired at me than with taking my camera out of my bag," he wrote.

But the court filing points to video captured by another Boston police officer's body camera. The Root family's lawyers say it shows Godin wearing his camera in the moments after the shooting, then removing the camera and tossing it into his cruiser.

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