TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Seven police officers shot and killed a man holding a rifle after he walked toward them and raised the gun despite their repeated calls for him to drop it, body-camera footage released Friday showed.
The officers fired within seconds of each other at the 47-year-old man who was suffering a mental health breakdown early Wednesday and had fired off several shots inside his house before police arrived, said interim Toledo Police Chief Michael Troendle.
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“All seven saw the same threat and fired at the same time,” said Troendle, who added that officers told the man to put the gun down at least 25 times and tried to calm him down even after he fired once when officers were nearby in the yard.
“Our officers did everything they could, and unfortunately it ended tragically,” he said.
The man’s girlfriend had called 911 and said he was shooting at their front door and that she and her 20-year-old son had escaped to the roof of their house. She said her boyfriend was suffering from delusions and thought someone was trying to get inside their house.
During the 911 call played at a police news conference Friday, she could be heard yelling at her boyfriend to drop the gun and telling police that he was suffering a breakdown and not to kill him.
Body-camera footage showed officers following the man through a side yard and then in front of his house alongside a street until he turned toward them and raised his gun.
The officers fired multiple times in a barrage that lasted about four seconds. A preliminary autopsy found that he had 22 gunshot wounds in the head, torso, left arm and legs.
