By Beacon Staff
The Burlington Cty Council voted Monday, Dec. 19, to release police vehicle dashboard camera footage related to the shooting of Autumn Steele by a Burlington police officer.
The council reviewed the settlement the week before at a city council work session. The agreement is between Georgia attorney Adam Klein (representing the Steele family and the Burlington Police Department
The footage can be released immediately, and the agreement is not an admission of liability.
“This stems back to an open records request from 2015 that became a result of the Steele v. City of Burlington case at about that time, and it had to do with open records,” Bird said.
Body camera footage and some of the 911 calls were released as part of a federal lawsuit that resulted in a $2 million settlement between the city and Steele’s family. Klein had been pursuing additional dashboard footage and other 911 calls through the district court.
Steele was shot and killed on Jan. 6, 2015, by Burlington Police officer Jesse Hill. While responding to a domestic dispute, Hill was startled by the family dog when it bit him. When Hill tried to shoot the dog, he accidentally hit Steele instead. Hill was not criminally charged and continues to work for the department.
The council passed the measure as part of the consent agenda, which included several other resolutions previously discussed by the council.