ABOVE: Police released this body camera footage showing the deadly officer-involved shooting (WARNING – video contains graphic images which may not be suitable for all viewers. Discretion is advised).
TORONTO – Footage released by the Muskogee, Oklahoma police department takes us inside the tense and dramatic moment an officer fatally shoots a man while responding to a call this past weekend.
On Saturday, January 17, Muskogee police officer Chansey McMillin was summoned to a church in response to reports of an armed man making threats to a woman at a wedding.
According to the Muskogee Police Department, the man made threats to kill a wedding party member, and came to the church armed with a loaded weapon.
Muskogee Police Department spokesman Cpl. Mike Mahan told NBC News 2 in Tulsa that the man, 21-year-old Terence Walker, had allegedly told the woman “he had a bullet with her name on it.”
In the body camera footage we see Officer McMillin approach Walker in the church parking lot, ask him if he could take his hands out of his pockets, and then begin to put the handcuffs on him.
“Just relax,” McMillin can be heard saying as he puts the man’s hands behind his back. “Why are you shaking for?”
In a moment, he has his answer: Walker makes a sudden lunge, which police say was a backwards elbow thrown into the officer’s face.
Just like that, the foot race is on, as McMillin pursues Walker and urges him to stop running.
After a short pursuit, the fleeing man stops and seems to kneel over, either to grab an item off the road or to retrieve something he had dropped.
According to police, the officer believed the item was a gun.
“It is our belief that the video clearly shows the suspect pointing the gun at the officer,” a release from the police department said.
News Channel 4 in Oklahoma City reports some witnesses said the item the man dropped was his cell phone, which can be seen earlier in the video.
However, police say the item dropped fell from his right hand, while his cell phone was being held in his left.
“The suspect made a conscious decision to stop and pick up the gun after having dropped it. The suspect made the decision to re-arm himself and subsequently point the gun in a threatening manner towards the officer,” the police press release reads.
Then, we hear several shots fired. Out of respect for the victim’s family and at the request of the Muskogee Police Department, the moment of the deadly shooting is not shown in the video above.
Walker was struck when the officer opened fire, and died on the scene as a result of his injuries.
Officer McMillin is now on routine leave while the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the Muskogee County District Attorney’s office investigates the shooting.
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