Houston PD chief to revise bodycam policy after officer's equipment wasn't activated during shooting

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The mother of a man shot by a Houston police officer last month is questioning the department's transparency after learning there is no body-worn camera footage of the shooting.

On Monday, the Houston Police Department released five videos - one from a dashboard camera and four others from the body cameras of all the officers on the scene in the 2400 block of Brewster on Dec. 17, 2023, except for one.

HPD said that the body-worn camera of Officer D. Reinhold, the pursuing officer, "was not activated during the incident."

Kevin Lyn Mitchell Jr., a robbery suspect, was shot once in the lower back.

"I had a feeling there wasn't going to be any video. That's the sad part. It's true," Tylan Billingsley, Mitchell's mother, said, adding her son has to use a wheelchair to get around.

Last month, police initially responded to a robbery at a business on Lee Road in northeast Houston. They said the suspect took off running, and when Reinhold tried to arrest him, he became violent and attempted to take both his gun and his Taser.

Witnesses gave a similar account to ABC13. Billingsley's mother would prefer to see it for herself.

"This just doesn't look good as far as on the officer's standpoint. It's already hard for us to trust law enforcement," she said. "We'll never know the truth except for what witnesses say."

In a statement, HPD said the Internal Affairs Division is investigating, and "the comprehensive investigation will include reviewing why the officer's Body Worn Camera was not activated."

The same statement said that HPD Chief Troy Finner is expected to announce revisions to the current body-worn camera policy next week.

While there are some legal issues to work through, ABC13 has learned the revisions include the ability for the department to retrieve video from body cameras even if an officer does not activate a recording.

Officer Reinhold remains on active duty pending the outcome of the IAD investigation.

Mitchell is charged with aggravated assault of a public servant and felony attempt to take a weapon from a police officer. He remains in jail.

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