Differing witness accounts of police shooting show how memories may be distorted
Two eyewitnesses to a police shooting in New York City recounted how the victim was posing no threat as the shots were fired.
One eyewitness told the New York Times moments after the incident that he heard shouts and saw a police officer chase a man into the street and shoot him down. Another witness called the Times to report that she saw a handcuffed man being shot by police.
A surveillance video showed both witnesses were wrong, the New York Times reports. The incident began when a man swung a hammer at the head of a police officer, who ran from the hammer-wielding man as he gave chase. The attack ended when the officer’s partner shot the attacker, David Baril, and then handcuffed him. Baril was hospitalized in critical condition and charged with criminal possession of a weapon and felony assault, the New York Times reported in another story.
The Times spoke with experts in false memories who weren’t surprised by the incorrect eyewitness accounts. Researcher Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine said many people fill in memory gaps and believe the extra information to be true.
“If someone has gaps in their narrative, they can fill it in with lots of things,” Loftus told the newspaper. “Often they fill it with their own expectations, and certainly what they may hear from others.”
In one study by psychology professor Deryn Strange of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, test subjects were shown a film of a car accident that claimed the lives of five people. Parts of the footage were edited out. Twenty-four hours later, the test subjects could accurately describe the film. But 36 percent said they remembered things that were not part of the film.
People are more likely to add false memories if they are upset about an event or are talking to others about it, Strange told the Times.
