Deputy’s body camera not working when he shot man with knife

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The body camera for a West Virginia deputy wasn’t working when he shot and killed a man with a knife.

The Dominion Post requested body camera footage from the Monongalia County Sheriff’s deputy who killed John Stewart Jr. on April 17.

Sheriff Perry Palmer told the paper the deputy’s camera battery wasn’t charged at the start of his shift. It stopped recording about two hours before he was dispatched to the domestic dispute call that ended in Stewart’s death.

The sheriff hasn’t publicly identified the deputy. Palmer says the Monongalia County grand jury has declined to indict.

The department conducted an internal investigation, but Palmer wouldn’t say whether the deputy was punished.

Stewart’s father, John Stewart Sr., has said the deputy escalated the situation unnecessarily.