LOS ANGELES: Newly relea­sed video shows US police shooting dead a kidnapped teenage girl they had been tasked with rescuing, in a chaotic incident on a busy California highway.

Savannah Graziano, 15, was gunned down as one deputy called her away from her gun-toting father, who had killed her mother a day earlier and abducted his daughter.

The episode unfolded in September 2022 when off­icers in San Bernardino county, east of Los Ange­les, began chasing the vehicle Anthony Graziano was driving with Savan­nah in the passenger seat.

Footage filmed by a California highway patrol helicopter shows the pickup truck racing along at upwards of 175 kilometres an hour, with multiple shots fired at police from inside Graziano’s vehicle. The chase ended after Graziano went the wrong way up a freeway entrance ramp and came to a halt on scrubland, surrounded by police vehicles.

Footage shows Savan­nah getting out of the car and walking towards a policeman, who can be heard on another recording calling her over. Radio traffic apparently from the helicopter warns police that Savannah is there. “The girl’s out. The girl’s out. Alr­i­­ght, girl’s out, guys. The female...is out. She’s out on the passenger side,” a man says.

It shows Savannah crouching on the ground for several seconds before getting up and walking towards a group of policemen. An apparent gunshot is heard on the video and Savannah is then blurred out as the voice on the radio says “Oh no”. Audio captured by a microphone worn by a police official on the ground records him calling Savannah over.

“Come to me! Come, come, come... walk, walk, walk,” he says, as heavy gunfire rings out. “Hey! Stop! Stop shooting her,” he tells his colleagues. “He’s in the car!”

Several shots can be he­­ard after this utterance.The teenager was decla­red dead in a hospital.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2024