From [HERE] and [HERE] The family of the Black man who was killed by a Harris County Sheriff’s Office sergeant in Westfield on Friday called the shooting “unjustified and unnecessary,” adding that he was a victim of racism and police brutality.

Authorities, who are accused of murder by the family, said Roderick Brooks had allegedly shoplifted from a nearby Dollar General and assaulted a clerk there moments earlier, died after an altercation with Sgt. G. Hardin, who used a Taser on him and then shot him in the neck. Hardin shot at Brooks when he grabbed at the sergeant’s Taser, authorities said.

Cell phone video obtained by ABC13 shows the moments immediately after the shooting. Witnesses were shocked by what they saw in a gas station parking lot in the 15500 block of Kuykendahl in north Harris County. it shows the cop who is on top of Brooks who is laying face down lying on his stomach.

Meanwhile, Brooks’ family is calling for body camera footage of the killing to be released and demanding more transparency from the sheriff’s office.

“For the city and the state to allow this type of … racism, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Brooks’ older sister, Demetria Brooks Glaze. “My brother was treated worse than an animal. Shoplifting does not warrant killing a man.”

The incident began with a call to police from the discount store in the 2000 block of Cypress Creek Parkway, where the family’s attorney, Sadiyah Evangelista, said Brooks shoplifted household goods.

Hardin spotted him nearby and began chasing him, at one point jumping out of his police cruiser without putting it in park and running after Brooks, Evangelista said witnesses told her.

They also said that after Brooks, 47, was shocked by the Taser and incapacitated, Hardin jumped on his back and “pulverized (him) with punches,” the attorney continued.

The family and the sheriff’s office disagree on what happened next. Brooks reached back and tried to gain control of Hardin’s Taser, authorities said, but Evangelista and Brooks’ family contend that he was defending himself against the “onslaught of punches” from the officer.

The sergeant’s actions drew a sharp rebuke from Deric Muhammad, a local activism stalwart.

“The problem is that racist policing is alive and well in the United States of America, and I believe that Roderick Brooks was a victim of racist policing,” he said. “(Hardin) was so hellbent on hog-tying this Black man that he abandoned all of his general orders.”

At the time of his death, Brooks had been free for hours on a personal recognizance bond stemming from a felony theft charge filed Thursday in which he was accused of stealing $124 worth of shampoo and beer from a Walmart, according to court records.

Despite several past shoplifting convictions, Brooks did not have a history of violence, his older sister said.

“My brother, he’s always been in and out of trouble — but he’s no murderer,” Brooks Glaze had previously told the Houston Chronicle.

Homicide and internal affairs investigators are reviewing the shooting, the sheriff’s office said in a statement, as is the civil rights division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. A grand jury will determine whether charges will be filed.