Body camera video released Thursday by Aurora Police shows that a man was walking toward an officer, ignoring commands to stop, in the moments before the officer shot and killed him.
The man was not armed when he was shot, the video shows. In the three minutes before the shooting occurred, the man had taken the officer to the ground and, in a struggle with the officer, had grabbed his magazine from his belt.
“The absence of a weapon does not mean there’s an absence of danger,” said Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain at a news conference Thursday. “There’s still a deadly threat.”
The body camera video was released at the news conference.
when an officer responded to The Parking Spot – an off-site parking lot near DIA – after a report about a suspicious person.
Chamberlain said that the manager of The Parking Spot called 911 about two hours before the shooting and reported that a man who appeared to be under the influence was trespassing at the parking lot. The manager called 911 three more times over the next 90 minutes to report that the situation had escalated — that the man had become aggressive and was trying to open car doors.
One Aurora Police officer was dispatched and arrived at 5:15 p.m.
Body camera video shows that when the officer approached, the man approached the officer and ignored the officer’s commands to back off. The officer used a baton and a Taser on the man, neither of which had an effect, Chamberlain said.
The man tackled the officer to the ground, the video shows. There appears to be a struggle during which, Chamberlain said, the officer fought to keep control of his gun. The video shows the officer try to de-escalate the situation by telling the man he wasn’t in trouble. After a few seconds, the video shows, the man backs away while holding the officer’s magazine.
The officer then stands and backs away with his gun drawn and tells the man to stop or he will shoot. The man continues to walk toward the officer, the video shows.
In the minutes before the shooting, the officer had called for backup, and the original caller contacted 911 to say that the officer needed help. Additional officers arrived on scene about five minutes after the shooting.
The man has been identified as 32-year-old Rashad Terrelle Johnson.
“This is a tragic situation for everyone involved,” Chamberlain said. “It’s tragic for the suspect, it’s tragic for the suspect’s family. It is tragic for the officer. It is tragic for the entire community.”
Chamberlain asked why someone who might have mental health or substance abuse issues was “out.”
“Why aren’t there systems in place other than law enforcement to address those issues?” he asked. “Why has it become so normalized that law enforcement is the de facto response?”
The officer who fired his weapon is a four-year veteran of the Aurora Police Department.
The district attorney’s office will determine whether charges are appropriate, and a Critical Incident Response Team is investigating.
