Greensboro police say deadly force in Marion Street shooting was justified

Greensboro police used Monday’s release of body-camera footage from the Marion Street shooting to argue that the fatal use of force against Said Ezzine was justified. The video centered on a call that began at about 4:06 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2025, in the 1600 block of Marion Street, where a resident flagged down an officer and reported a trespasser on private property without permission.

Police said the resident pointed officers to Ezzine, 48, and that the investigating officer knew him from previous encounters. The department also said Ezzine’s recent arrest history included charges of assault on officers. According to police, repeated commands did not stop him. They said he then pulled out a weapon later described as a pipe wrench and moved toward the officer before the shot was fired.

Chief Kamran Afzal said every loss of life mattered and framed the release as an effort to explain what happened as openly as possible. The footage gave the public a chance to watch the encounter unfold frame by frame and weigh the department’s account against what the camera captured, especially the moments when officers say the encounter crossed from investigation to immediate threat.

The department had said on Sept. 2, 2025, that it would petition for release of the footage, and a Guilford County Superior Court judge later granted that request before the video was made public. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation handled the shooting investigation, and the Guilford County District Attorney’s Office was expected to review the findings after that outside investigation ended.

For Greensboro, the release was about more than one shooting on Marion Street. It also reflected the city’s larger struggle to balance transparency, officer safety, privacy rules and public trust after a deadly police encounter.