Body-camera footage shows the final moments of 37-year-old Dwight Hawkins’ life before he was shot by two Baltimore Police officers steps from his family home.

Officers Arthur Fuog, Devin Yancy and Omar Rodriguez approached Hawkins in Belair Discount Liquors around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, suspecting he was armed, officials said.

Police officials don’t know why the officers with the Group Violence Reduction Unit walked into Belair Discount Liquors on Tuesday evening, but after they did, it turned deadly.

The bodycam footage released Friday shows one officer standing in the left corner of the store, one holding the door open for those leaving and Rodriguez standing in the middle of the store.

Hawkins, wearing a gray sweatsuit, was off to the left counting his money before he left the store. Rodriguez and the other officers followed him. Hawkins started running, and the officers chased him.

As Hawkins ran, his sweatpants started falling down, revealing a gun in his right hand. Officers continued chasing him around a car parked in the 2800 block of Pelham Avenue.

Hawkins is seen extending his left hand toward Fuog, and then Fuog and Rodriguez fire at him.

Deputy Commissioner Brian Nadeau said one of the officers fired 10 shots and the other fired seven, but they don’t have the autopsy report yet to say how many times Hawkins was hit.

Hawkins never fired his gun, but it was loaded, officials said. The gun wasn’t stolen, but it was unregistered, a police spokesperson said.

Rodriguez, who along with Yancy was involved in a fatality last year, was heard repeatedly yelling “f-k” after shooting Hawkins. Fuog continued calling for Hawkins to show his hands while he was lying on the street bleeding.

A hysterical man approached the officers. “Oh, my God, that’s my nephew,” the man said with his hands up. “Please, sir.”

He then ran toward one of the nearby homes, wailing.

Police officials released the bodycam footage an hour before Hawkins’ family members planned to gather in the 2800 block of Pelham Avenue, where he was shot, to amplify their calls for justice.

The area is also where Hawkins’ late grandmother has lived since 1999 and where he and many of his siblings and cousins grew up. Relatives’ sorrow was mixed with smiles and memories of how they used to play baseball and Hawkins’ jokes.

Hawkins’ family described him as funny, loving, caring, hardworking and family-oriented.

Shana Hawkins, Dwight Hawkins’ sister, is sure her brother would have been excited to turn up with her for her birthday Saturday. She smiled thinking about her favorite memory with him: when they took a party bus to Washington for his 35th birthday.

“Whew, we had so much fun! We must’ve partied for like two days,” she said. “He said, ‘I ain’t never had a birthday like this.’”

Celebrations for her may look different, though, after her brother was fatally shot by police four days before her birthday. Shana Hawkins said she feels lost.

“I just wanted to know why,” she said. “Why was that incident so severe that it was necessary to use that force?”

Shana Hawkins and other family members saw the bodycam footage earlier, but it didn’t give her the clarity she sought.

“I think they presented what they wanted to present,” Shana Hawkins said. “But they never gave a why.”

About a dozen people joined the grieving family to rally against what they believe is an injustice and the result of improper training and lack of accountability.

Chante Fenner, cousin of the Hawkins siblings, led protesters in chants calling for justice while holding a black sign with colorful writing that read, “Criminals wear badges.”

“If Omar [Rodriguez] would have been locked up for killing that man in Upton, he [Dwight Hawkins] wouldn’t be dead,” Fenner said.

Rodriguez and Yancy were two of three officers involved in the fatal shooting of Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, a popular arabber in West Baltimore, last year. Yancy had also been shot during this incident. Both of the officers had just returned to the force after being cleared of wrongdoing by the state attorney general’s office in December.

Yancy was also one of four officers involved in a fatal crash while pursuing a stolen car in February 2023. Prosecutors declined to charge him then, too. Yancy did not shoot Hawkins.

The Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland attorney general’s office is investigating Hawkins’ death. It reviews all police-involved fatalities in the state.

This is the second fatal shooting by Baltimore Police this year. Jamarl Muse was fatally shot by officers after resisting arrest in January and allegedly firing a weapon while doing so.

In addition to Abdullah, Jai Marc Howell, Pytorcarcha Brooks and Dontae Melton Jr. died at the hands of Baltimore Police officers in 2025. Officers in all but Brooks’ cases were clear of the charges.

This story has been updated.