A 36-year-old New Orleans man’s death was captured on his own Facebook Live video in Alamo, Tennessee.
Rodney Hess was broadcasting on Facebook Live when he was shot and killed by police on March 16, after he blocked traffic on a highway ramp when he parked his SUV sideways, according to the Jackson Sun.
The Crockett County Sheriff’s Department told investigators that Hess had refused to listen to deputies who arrived on the scene around 2:15 p.m. Police said Hess became “erratic” and twice tried to run the officers down with his car.
In the graphic video Hess says he wants to speak to “the higher commands” before being shot several times through his windshield. Hess managed to drive his car across the Highway 88 overpass before he crashed in a ditch off Highway 412 near the opposite exit ramp. Hess was airlifted the Regional Medical Center in Memphis where he later died.
Hess’s fiancée, Johnisha Provost, who watched the incident unfold on Facebook Live, told the Commercial Appeal Hess suffered from bipolar disorder and was asking for help.
“He couldn’t get his mind together,” she said. “That’s why he asked for a higher command. I always told him, ‘Babe, if you are ever in a situation where you need help, ask the person in charge for the higher command to help you,’ and that’s what he kept saying.”
Provost added, “He was not on a suicide mission. He was not trying to harm anybody. He was asking them for help and they shot him down.”
She said Hess was in Memphis visiting his mother for two days after leaving New Orleans.
The video was Hess’s second that day. He had also live streamed a 17-minute video before his traffic stop, where he acted strangely. In that video Hess parks by the side of the road then starts walking around his SUV filming it before filming passing cars. He can be heard mumbling something about the CIA before moving his car several times and blocking the road again.
The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released, as the investigation is still active.
[Feature Photo: Facebook]
