Just one day after executive producer Dan Abrams tweeted that the show wasn’t going anywhere, A&E has canceled its cop Live PD, citing the current climate in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Vulture reported.
“This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live PD,” the network said in a statement. The move comes days after it was revealed that the show’s cameras had filmed the 2019 police killing of Javier Ambler and that footage of the killing was ultimately destroyed.
According to the Austin Statesman, “Williamson County sheriff’s deputies attempted to pull Ambler over March 28, 2019, after he failed to dim the headlights of his SUV to oncoming traffic. Twenty-eight minutes later, the 40-year-old black father of two sons lay dying on a North Austin street after deputies held him down and used Tasers on him four times while a crew from A&E’s show Live PD filmed. The former postal worker repeatedly pleaded for mercy, telling deputies he had congestive heart failure and couldn’t breathe. He cried, ‘Save me,’ before deputies deployed a final shock.”
“As is the case with all footage taken by Live PD producers, we no longer retained the unaired footage after learning that the investigation had concluded,” A&E said in a statement.
The network also left the door open for a potential reboot of the show at a later date, saying, “Going forward, we will determine if there is a clear pathway to tell the stories of both the community and the police officers whose role it is to serve them” and adding that it “will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments” to discuss potential options.
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