A so-called “legal dream team” continued to call on Mobile police to release the body camera footage of the tasing death of a 36-year-old Black man by a police officer following an altercation on July 2 in Theodore.

But police have given no indication on when, or if, the footage of Jawan Dallas’s death will be released.

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Mobile police have dismissed calls for releasing video footage in other deaths occurring at the hands of an officer. Bodycam footage has been withheld from the public of the March 7 killing of 25-year-old Kordell Jones, who was shot by authorities while they were raiding a home in search of his brother.

The city has had a longtime policy of withholding bodycam footage related to active investigations.

“We’ve seen this same thing play out again and again,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement ahead of an appearance in Mobile on Wednesday where he spoke during Dallas’s funeral. Crump has handled some high-profile wrongful death lawsuits in recent years, notably serving as the main attorney representing the family of George Floyd. He has also represented the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake.

“The police tell us a story and expect us to just take it on faith,” Crump added. “Well, they have the body camera video. If what they say is true, then release the video and prove it.”

The statements on Thursday came on the same day that the attorneys filed a claim form with the Mobile City Clerk’s Office, triggering an intent to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Dallas family.

“America is tired of watching police officers brutalize and kill young Black men just because they happened to be in the general area,” said civil rights attorney Lee Merritt. “America is tired of it and we intend to do something about it,” Merritt said, referring to the Dallas case.

Claim form: Innocent man killed

The intent to sue they filed Thursday argues Dallas was beaten and tased to death by a Mobile police officer, who has not been named.

The killing occurred after a man called 911 to say someone was trying to break into his trailer. Police released a transcript of the 911 call. That call prompted a rapid response by police, who have said they encountered Dallas and another man roughly 100 yards away from the property. The attorneys for the family argue the caller informed police dispatch that someone was “only in his yard” and that a burglary was not happening.

“Notably, entering a person’s property without authorization is a misdemeanor in the state of Alabama,” the report says.

The 911 caller also said the person who trespassed on the property was homeless. Dallas, the claim report says, was approached by police while “sitting in a fully functional vehicle and did not present to be indigent or homeless.”

A Mobile police officer then demanded Dallas produce his state issued ID. Police have said he refused to do so and the family asserts that’s “because he had not committed any crime.”

Dallas was then struck and tased multiple times, the claim form the family filed on Thursday says. Attorney Harry Daniels has said that Dallas fell to the ground after the first tasing, grabbed his chest and complained of a chest pain. The officer then “tased him again until he stopped moving,” according to the law firm.

“Ironically, the 911 caller and his wife, are eyewitnesses to the Mr. Dallas being beaten by a responding office,” the claim says. “They also confirmed that Mr. Dallas was not the person on their property.”

Mobile police declined to comment. A spokeswoman said that “as a policy, we refrain from making any comments or statements regarding ongoing or active legal matters.”

A spokeswoman for the Mobile City Council also declined to comment. But Mobile police, earlier this month, told a similar, but somewhat different version of events.

Chief: Officers feared safety

Both sides appear to agree that Dallas was seated in a car when he was approached by officers responding to a call about a “burglary in progress” at a mobile home and that they found him several lots away from where the call originated.

At that point, Chief Paul Prine has said that Dallas evaded requests from police for him to produce his identification card and officers became concerned for their safety, Prine said, because of Dallas’s “strange movement in the car.” Prine said that Dallas was “moving to the backseat with his hands” and “reaching under the vehicle and these are cause for concern for safety matters of the officers.”

Prine has also said Dallas was later found to have drugs — crystal methamphetamine and analog marijuana also known as spice. Prine said Dallas was a convicted felon, and that the drug possession “may give some indication as to why he certainly attempted to flee and fight” police commands.